The Honorable Assassin
by Angel Davis
Summary: "You know, Alistair, not all assassins are murdering, lying bastards… well most of us are on the surface but we care for one another and are a family… how many of your precious human friends can say the same?" She was a vampire and a murderer, but there she was lecturing him on family... Warning for language, and mild sexuality.
1. The Grey and Brotherhood

**So this is the new an improved chapter that doesn't really suck... I am so sorry for all those that read this before I rewrote it. Thank you so much Lisa for bringing how much of a pile of crap this was, you saved my butt my friend! Now people, don't listen to your friends when they tell you at four in the morning with no sleep the night before that what you wrote in around an hour is good to post online... DONT TRUST THEM!**

**Okay so prior to reading this I hint at it in the story but I'll satisfy it before you read. The two worlds that this is in, are on two separate continents on opposite ends of the world. Duncan is searching for the Black Brotherhood for a new recruit. He was sent a letter from someone in the Brotherhood that there would be a good recruit. Alistair is with him, but he doesn't know that his new brother or sister is going to be an assassin. So Alistair is clueless to what they are looking for, and Duncan knows what he has to find. **

**Okay, so without further a due... Read and Review. Tell me about stuff and I hope that this chapter is better Lisa... thank you again for the review :)**

**_This writing is the flashback within a flashback_**

_This is a flashback!_

* * *

It was cold. Sure Ferelden was cold this time of year but this country made Ferelden look like summer even in her harshest winters. Clouds of mist and steam erupted from Alistair's mouth as he slowly took breath, even the act of breathing made his lungs ache and it just made him colder. This land was harsh and he wanted to go home. Who was he kidding? Home was almost four months across the ocean, home was on a completely different land with completely different people, filled with completely different rules and completely different magic.

He sighed and then cursed as he had to take another breath. His mount was not fairing as well as he was, stumbling as it was walking on the icy ground. Alistair had absolutely no idea where they were going, in fact he suspected that they were heading around in circles.

Alistair looked ahead at his Commander. He too wore a silver cloak like Alistair. They wore the only thing that would symbolize that they were Grey Wardens, the symbolistic armor and cloaks. That didn't help one bit against the cold in this land.

He started to shiver again. At first when it stopped he was worried that he had caught cold and that his body would soon feel the sleepiness that came with feeling that cold but none came. He urged his horse to ride next to Duncan, secretly hopping that in doing this he could feed off of the warmth from Duncan.

"Duncan, how much longer until we get to the town?"

"Not far, Alistair, not far."

Alistair resisted the urge to snort. If he snorted then he would have to take an extra breath. Duncan had said that two hours ago. He pulled his horse behind Duncan leaving some room on the trail for if another rider had to get around them. He looked at the trail, how this could be considered such was just… insane! There was almost no path among the snow and there was a sheer drop on one side.

Thats when he saw the town. He sagged in relief as he saw it. Oh thank the Maker! Thats when his horse balked and started to freak out. Truth be told Alistair hated horses. He never could get the feel of a giant beast like this one, and his horse didn't like him either. He would've thought that his horse was just being fussy if not for Duncan's doing the exact same thing.

Thats when he saw it. A strong wind whipped snow over the giant beast. It walked slowly, the ground crunching beneath its thick black hooves that seemed to be coated in sheen. It was completely black and void of all the snow that was swirling around it. He felt himself swallow and his hand instinctively go for his sword. That when it stopped looking ahead and _looked_ at him. Thats when he felt true fear, the horses eyes glowed red, and it looked like it was warning him.

There was a shift in the reins and Alistair looked at the rider. If he thought that the horse was scary then the bloody rider was even worse. It was female, but there was nothing nice about this little lady. Her armor fit her like a glove, red leather on her hands and feet with studs and spikes. Black leather clothed everything else but her head. He looked into the hooded and masked face as the the woman looked down at him with eyes colder than the air. A red open furred cloak billowed in the wind and snow and Alistair saw a black handprint on it. The rider looked upon them one more time before urging her horse foreword and Alistair heard the jingling of a chain and saw that the Rider was dragging something behind her.

Alistair wished that he could've taken everything back. He could handle the cold, he could handle the giant beasts but this he could not take. She was dragging a dead body behind her. No head attached but the cold had already frozen the neck so no blood leaked out of the severed neck.

This woman… who the hell was she? He didn't know the standard protocol of this place but a woman wearing dark armor on a dark horse carrying or dragging a body was pretty much a sign of a bloody killer! Why wasn't this woman being pursued by guards? Why wasn't she being arrested?

"Hey you!" was called followed by loud sounds of the jingling of armor.

Alistair looked at the purple uniform of the guard. He still didn't know who could freaking run around in short sleeves in this weather but that was what most guards that he had seen wearing.

When the guard came closer he drew his sword and Alistair moved to assist him but Duncan moved in front of him, and Alistair felt a restraining hand on his sword arm.

"We are guests in this land Alistair, we cannot interfere with their conflicts."

Alistair sighed and winced when he took a deep breath. Grey Wardens and their neutral stance. He hated it at this moment. Thats when he noticed the Duncan was looking up at the cliffs not at the direct threat.

"Duncan?"

He looked up and he noticed a shimmer. Like something was distorting the actual picture of the mountain. He squinted and he saw something step out of the shimmer and he gasped when he saw the black figure clothed in the same armor as the scary rider but it didn't have a cloak. It drew something from its back and Alistair was about to yell to the guard about the archer but Duncan's grip warned him not to say anything.

An innocent man was about to be killed! Why wasn't Duncan doing anything?

As soon as the man came close the archer let loose the arrow. Alistair watched in slow motion as the arrow flew straight and true to the man's head. His mouth dropped open and he forgot the fact that it would give away some of his warmth because the arrow blew through the man's head. It wasn't a clean shot, it was like the head had exploded. Alistair had never seen anything like it and struggled not to heave as lines of steam and warmth floated off of the blood. His horse had a delayed reaction to the blood because it chose that time to rear and scream as it smelled the blood. He struggled to gain control of his mount and by the time he did the archer was no longer there and the rider had moved on.

"Well, come one Alistair." Duncan said, his voice grave after what he just saw but he was taking it better than Alistair was.

He urged his horse who didn't want to go foreword to go foreword. He winced when the horse bloodied its hooves in the red snow but not as much as when he saw the body. How could a normal arrow do that?

He was right next to the body when his Templar instincts kicked in, he could smell the spice of magic. A mage archer? This land was really. really strange.

* * *

Dawnstar. This was Dawnstar? Alistair couldn't believe it! This was a great city in this land? It looked like a bunch of huddled buildings that together couldn't even compare of the size of the Alienage in Denerim. Duncan didn't seem to mind and quickly alerted the nearest guard about the body on the road. The guard sighed and muttered something that Alistair couldn't catch before going up the road.

The town was… well bustling. It was light and cheery despite the cold and the dead body not even a click up the road. Children screamed and played around the horses and as they passed a blacksmith they waved a hammer in greeting at the Grey Wardens. Alistair gave a small smile as Duncan waved back. He wondered if anyone here knew Duncan, or if they were just really, really friendly. No, Duncan was old but he hadn't been everywhere…

They stopped by a building with a sign that had an mug of ale on it. Duncan took his horse around the back and put it in the stables and Alistair dismounted with him and gave the stableboy a smile as Duncan gave him a few coins. The boy quickly got to work by pulling both of their mounts into the stable while Alistair had to quickly grab his pack from him mount before it was dragged away.

He followed Duncan through the back entrance and breathed a sigh of relief when warmth engulfed him. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to actually not be cold. He took off his hood and saw that Duncan was two steps ahead of him as he approached the barmaid and she nodded and smiled as she gave him a key and gestured like she was giving him directions.

Alistair could care less, he saw what he wanted to do. He made a bee line for the bar and quickly ordered an ale. The whole downstairs of the inn was happy. Conversations came and went, happy laughter echoed in his ears and he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked at Duncan who was looking with disapproval at his mug of ale. Alistair gave an unhappy sigh and drained his mug and payed for it before following Duncan.

The wooden stairs had been built on the other side of the bar and going of the narrow corridor Alistair found that the noise of downstairs was almost completely muffled. He followed to the top of the stairs and Duncan led him to the far right door in the set of three.

Alistair sighed and sat on one of the two beds. Duncan had yet to take off his armor or cloak but Alistair went ahead and changed into a comfortable three layers of clothing and clean pants and boots. Duncan handed him the room key and Alistair looked at hi with confusion.

"We are staying here a few days."

Wait, what? Duncan had only stayed in each town that they had gone through for the night, just to get some rest. Did that mean that he was closer to finding the people that he was looking for? Alistair realized that Duncan had yet to tell him just who the lucky recruit was, or where they were located. Well he guessed that they moved around a lot because of the moving that Alistair and Duncan had done. Or maybe Duncan had a lead.

"Alistair!"

Alistair snapped out of thoughts to quickly look at Duncan.

"Sorry Duncan, what?"

"I said that I'll be back in the 'morrow. I shouldn't be more than a day, two at the most."

"What?"

So Duncan had gotten a lead after all.

"Were you not paying attention again?"

Alistair felt his face heat up, "No!"

Duncan raised an eyebrow, and Alistair quickly moved to cover up his denial.

"Its just, well shouldn't I go with you?"

"No, just stay here and keep warm. We aren't leaving for a few days yet."

He didn't say anything else and Alistair didn't stop him when he left the room. He felt a little stung that Duncan was going to do this without him. He was now a Grey Warden and a seasoned warrior not a child that couldn't handle things. He thought to the guard from earlier and shuttered, he could handle most things.

He sighed and closed his eyes. It had been a long journey from Ferelden. He missed the others already. He opened them, there was no way that he could sleep right now. Every time he closed his eyes he saw that guard having his head blown off. Magic. It had been a magic arrow or something. A very skilled mage must've done that, and he had never heard of someone with that sort of power.

Then again he wasn't a templar for… well any time at all. He had left before he could become addicted to lyrim. The face of the Revered Mother flashed before his eyes and he smirked. Then the dead guard flashed again and he snarled. If Duncan wasn't leaving for a few days then he was gonna get drunk.

Alistair was not the man to drink that often, but when he did feel the need he hardly drank anything, just enough to become warm and fuzzy inside. But warm and fuzzy was still not enough to drown out the image of the guard or the horse or scary rider. So he kept it up and drank. Unknown to Alistair but the friendly banter and laughter had been put on hold. In fact the laughing conversations turned into hushed whispers as the whole pub looked at one table who had filled the room with their own laughter and conversation.

Alistair would be lying if he wasn't listening to them.

"So he lands on the meat and turns it around… Its Evan!"

Laughter filled the room as the others laughed, and Alistair didn't even know what they were talking about. It made no sense to him.

"So you were hunting a little kitty cat and you went after the human? That's a bad dog!"

More laughter filled and Alistair stole a glance at the table.

Despite their laughter there was a sinister dark aura that filled the air around them. Alistair had a nagging feeling that he had felt it before but he was too warm and fuzzy to care. They all wore the colors red, white or black. Two of them looked almost identical with their ruffled black hair and too green eyes. One had a turban and looked sort've like Duncan… he chuckled wait till he told him he had a lookalike. Then he saw the child. He just stared. Since when have children been allowed in here? She had on a simple red dress and was… sewing? Alistair must be drunker than he thought.

"Maybe they shouldn't let children drink, hmmmm?" It was a smooth voice and female. He whipped his head to see a woman sitting next to him… had she always been there?

She had long black hair that was done up in a neat ponytail with beautiful thick lashes framing ice blue eyes. He couldn't help but to stare at her lack of clothing, wondering if it was an illusion because there was no way that someone could survive cold in what she was wearing. He blushed when he realized that he was staring at her. She had bandages wrapped around her… ample chest and she wore low riding loose black and red pants. She wore nothing else, except a smile on her black lips, and he noticed that she had a black tattoo on her stomach over her navel. It was of a black hand. Why did that seem familiar?

"She isn't drinking…" He said realizing that the woman was waiting for an answer for her question.

"Yes, but you are…" She teased and a small smile was back.

"Are you calling me a child?"

She leaned in and Alistair almost jerked back when she looked at him up and down and slowly her tongue came out to lick her lips and he saw that none of the paint that was on them came off.

"I wouldn't go _that_ far."

He smiled and felt goofy. Was she flirting with him? He blushed again and looked at his mug hoping that he wouldn't make a fool of himself.

"Oi Lucia!"

The woman turned and Alistair did too. One of the men at the table, one of the twins waved at her. She rolled her eyes and grabbed her mug.

"Get your fat cow ass over here and tell us about that one girl… the pretty one that Evan and I helped you with!"

Lucia, or the woman took a deep calming breath.

"Would you excuse me for just a moment?" She asked sweetly and he found himself nodding.

Her words… her words were laced with something. He found himself reaching out for her. In that he didn't realize that he was actually physically doing just that and he found himself falling off of his stool and onto the hard ground and he found himself surrounded by darkness.

* * *

_Lucia was dreaming. Back when she was first changed. All the new things were so different. Her magic was easier to control, her eyesight was better, and she never felt…well cold. She felt like she had been reborn. _

_ She knew she was dreaming or remembering because one: Astrid was in front of her, two she was in the Falkreth sanctuary and three… well she just had that feeling. She was dreaming of her first kill, well after the change into a vampire. She was younger and jumped when she saw the younger versions of the actual Brotherhood with her. Those faces, those eyes. _

_ The dream shifted, she was in the tree with Victoria. Those green eyes wrapped in the darkness of the hood and her body clothed in the Brotherhood armor. They had climbed it so that they could watch the people passing by the trail that lead to the Sanctuary. They were laughing and smiling, or Lucia thought that she was smiling, it was hard to tell because of the masks. _

_ Lucia felt her body in the present time shed a tear. Victoria would move on to become the Listener of the Black Brotherhood, to rebuild what Astrid soon destroyed. She remembered that she always wanted to become what others hated, she wanted to live and be young forever. She and Victoria had this conversation about it._

_**"So… what do you think about Babette?"**_

_**"She's cold and calculating, you know the perfect assassin… but if your talking about her Vampirism, I would never want that."**_

_**"What? I would love it, staying young forever and being able to control my magic, not to mention the strength and stuff."**_

_**"It would be useful… but its not something that I would ever do."**_

_**There was a brief silence before she answered.**_

_**"I'm gonna ask her tonight… you know to change me."**_

_**"What? But what about love? What about having a future? You can't do that with this uncurable disease!"**_

_**"I am an assassin. And she offered, it's not like I'm gonna y'know push this on her."**_

_**"But what if you fall in love? He won't accept that part of you, in fact he'll kill you."**_

_**"I don't see Astrid killing her husband!"**_

_**"It's quite different! Werewolves age, vampires are stuck! Plus Astrid and her husband are both assassins, we have a hard enough time finding love outside of this world because of what we are, your just making it harder."**_

_**"Then I'll be stuck at the beautiful age of nineteen summers. I don't need love!"**_

_**"Just… think about it before you decide. If you do it, then you'll have to live frozen in time while everyone else dies of old age or sickness."**_

_ She had done it. Victoria had been not as happy as Lucia had been when she woke up after three days of being sick. She had immediately wanted to go outside and Victoria had followed her up this tree to do watch. They hadn't talked about it. They took their watch in silence. Lucia could smell everything, even the burning from a forge in Falkreath and the snow in the nearby mountains. She could see perfectly in the shadows of the dark, and she hadn't even broken a sweat from running and climbing this tree. _

_ She felt free. Like she could do anything, well except run through fire that would kill her. But she felt so amazing. She looked to the road and found that she could see each pebble of mud, each scuff in the stone. Then she heard it. _

_ If she could hear the blacksmith from several leagues away then the wagons traveling there were like thunder. She felt her eyes widen as she heard it, it was all so amazing. She heard the heartbeats and conversations of the travelers. But she could smell something else in the air._

_ "They're slavers."_

_ Victoria grunted and Lucia took out her bow and put an arrow into the string. They would pass the trail oblivious of the two that sat in the tree watching them… but it was a good precaution. _

Lucia opened her eyes, that had been almost ten summers ago. She sighed and got out of her stone bed. The sun had gone down and she was still wearing what she had when she had gone to the bar. She took a deep breath and listened. The others were either out at the bar again or out on missions.

She opened the stone slab that sheltered her and Babette's room from the rest of the stone sanctuary. She breathed in deep smelling the moss and fresh water. Her feet made no sound as she walked along the hall to the giant circular room that took her to the room just below the Night Mother's coffin. She still had flashes of memories dotting her vision and she allowed herself to stare off into space while her feet took to the destination.

After she had made the choice to be a vampire Victoria had started to sleep in her stone room with Babette and Lucia. She had still continued the friendship even though her friend was now a blood-sucking killer. But everything changed… When the Night Mother arrived.

Victoria would wake up speaking about voices in her head. How someone was speaking to her and after Astrid had made her do that stupid spying mission on Cicero she slowly became a different person. She would no longer allow anyone to call her by her name Victoria and would call people by their tittles. Lucia was the only one that could speak her name in the privacy of no one else being there. It had scared her how much her friend had changed from that day. Both of them had changed over the years…

Lucia walked in to the main living area, a roaring fireplace with banners of the Black Hand hanging with the glass window of Sithis with the secret entrance to Dawnstar. The room had the stale scent of dinner. Distantly she could hear the torture room and the moans that were coming from it. The long wooden table was set with plates and utensils and seated at its head was the Listener. Victoria no longer had those vivid green eyes, they were cold like green sea glass. She had a white scar on her upper lip and faint lines on her face. She was aging.

"Your up early, Lucia."

Her cue, they were alone in the sanctuary.

"Yes, I had a dream."

"About what?"

"My first day."

The memory came back.

_"Lucia, one of their slaves broke free and is going toward the sanctuary." _

_ Lucia closed one of her eyes, looking at the target who was hobbling on broken legs with almost no clothing._

_ "She's getting closer!"_

_ Lucia held her breath as she zoomed in._

_ "Lucia!" _

_ She aimed, pointing her arrow at the head of the slave._

_ "Take the Sithis damned shot!"_

_ "I'm taking aim, stop being worried I always make my mark!"_

_ "She's getting away…"_

_ Take a deep breath and aim._

_ "She's running!"_

_ Almost got it… concentrate your magic._

_ "Your gonna miss her!"_

_ Lucia let go of the arrow and her partner gave her a satisfied smirk as the head of the girl exploded coating everyone in a layer of gore and blood._

_ "There I took the bloody shot! She's dead and there's blood everywhere! Happy?"_

_ They both sat there for a moment. Then burst out laughing as the door to the sanctuary opened and Astrid came out with several others to hunt the slavers in the woods. How Astrid knew about them was a complete mystery but it was still a fond day. _

Lucia would never forget that day. It was one of her more fonder memories of the friend that she had since then lost. She missed Victoria and sometimes she would see her come out behind the mask that the Listener put on, but it was only on rare occasions.

"Your not going to the inn with the others?"

Her friend didn't look up from her book but she ignored the question.

"Did you do as I asked?"

"Yes, I watched the younger Grey Warden as you and the elder one asked. He's sleeping off the effects of the potion that I gave him, I will give him the same one tonight so that he will not leave."

"Then why are you still here, Silencer. Do what your Listener commands."

Lucia through years of practice did not flinch. She didn't show any emotion that the Listener would or could pick at. She just stood and with a bow she left the room. She struggled to hold it all in. Her emotions were raging as she went back to the room the her and Babette shared and began to prepare the potion that was needed. She didn't notice that she was crying until she saw that droplets come from her eyes. She quickly gripped ahold of herself and stopped the tears.

_She's not going to come back, no matter how much you wish that she would…._

She ignored that thought and continued to make the potion.

She continued to hope that her friend would come back, but it had been five years since she had called Lucia by her actual name and not rank as Silencer. She sighed, she feared that her friend was lost to her, forever.


	2. If only

**Okay, the second chapter in the Honorable Assassin. I have to say this is doing much better than I thought it would in terms of how many bloody insane people would read it in the short time that it had been up. I have to say, if it wasn't doing as well as it was then I would be forced to delete it... but its doing quite well. Lisa, if you are reading this I thank you for your lovely input and I hope you like this chapter :) **

**R&R.**

**On a additional note, if you don't see an update its cuz I started college and its harder for me to write... That and tonight my water pump out on the farm decided to quit on us... in the middle of my shower. So I'll be a little distracted. Anyway, Enjoy!**

The crunch of snow felt good against her bare feet as she made her way across town to the inn. It had snowed that day and in the night she could see the gathering of the flakes around her. Lucia allowed herself the barest of smiles before she drew it all back in. She was off to do her Listener's bidding and then… well do whatever her Listener wanted her to do.

She sighed and drew in the frosty air. It was free from the stench of the Night Mother, who was a corpse that the Keeper kept fresh. Even with the scented oils and incense around her shrine Lucia could still smell the rotting flesh of their Mother. Truth be told she hated the Night Mother, not because of anything that the Night Mother did in the past when she wasn't that desolate corpse but what she was doing now. She was erasing Victoria from the world to make way for the Listener.

_That already happened. You are just in denial._

She promptly ignored her inner demons and concentrated on the task at hand. The Warden should be waking up and after she slipped this into his food or whatever he would be incapacitated for another day. Long enough for the Grey Warden Commander to do whatever he needed to do. She never really did know what he needed. She had seen him, told him "Good Evening" and that was it. She hadn't talked to him, just nodded to his questions and spent most of the last day in her rom with Babette mixing potions or at the Inn.

She felt guilty because she was somewhat leading the younger Grey Warden on. She didn't feel in inch of attraction for the bumbling foolish Warden… She was just following orders. Thats why her heart sank when she heard her name being called in his voice. She turned to see him standing there with two horses.

She quickly ducked behind a house before he could see her. She breathed deeply and tried to stop her emotions long enough to slip that seductive mask on her face. She had done this a million times, fooled men into thinking she was harmless… but she never enjoyed it. Lucia enjoyed when she did it the first four or five times she had to either get a snack or kill a mark but now it was just dull. She felt, well dirty for doing it. This man wasn't like the rest, he would get attached. His innocent eyes and blush made it quite apparent to her that he would not like the outcome of what was to be when the Commander was done with his business with the Listener.

She was playing with fire and she hated doing that.

"Lucia, correct?" A deep voice interrupted her thoughts.

Only through years of control and patience had she not jumped in the air, she had to alway be cool and show that she was expecting things. She had to let people know that she was not easily snuck up on so she learned well to hide the fact that he had surprised her. She shouldn't had been surprised in the first place… she was slipping.

"Yes, Commander?" She said slipping into her cold and emotionless assassin's voice. Ten years it had taken for her to learn the proper way to show people the different faces, she had shown Alistair her seductive one, shown others her fake happy one. They were so that she could manipulate and control any situation that she found herself in.

She looked at him. The shocking thing was that he looked almost like Nazir, well in the fact that they both had an expressive aura and demanded respect. Nazir was an ass half the time until you proved your usefulness to him, then he was your best friend. This man, Duncan was like Nazir… but he was not an assassin.

"I would like to ask what you are doing with Alistair."

He chose his words carefully and she sighed. She could see the father protecting his son in this man's eyes. She completely faced him and locked eyes with him. He could not make her back down no matter what his position was, she was third in command and was following her Listeners orders, that surpassed what his little thoughts were on the matter.

"What my Listener ordered me to do."

"Your Listener ordered you to plant these false ideas of love inside Alistair's head?"

Her eyes went more cold as she slowly began to feel anger. She lifted her lip exposing her fangs which had elongated.

"Not that I have to explain myself to you… oh wait I don't." She snarled and turned to leave but his hand closed upon her upper arm and he dragged her to throw her against the side of the house.

"Do not toy with me. Alistair is still young in many ways and I will not have you toying with his strings like you would with all the others. I have heard of your ways…"

"I am following her orders, its not my fault that seduction is one of the greatest tools in a woman's arsenal." She spat at him, and his eyes darkened. "It makes men weak and brings thoughts that are distracting… easy for a woman to slip a poison or two into his drink!"

He struck, gripping her throat. She hissed knowing that she could break his hold but also knowing that she was under orders not to rip his spine out of his body and beat him with it made her even more enraged.

She froze when an orange glow was pushed near her face. A sliver of fear entered her expression before she covered it up. He held a very small vial, inside was liquid fire. Very rare, but the most effective tool for killing any vampire. She gave him a death glare.

"You will cease this game you play with him or you may find this in your drink… am I understood?"

"You may wish for me to stop, but that is not what my Listener says. You are scary Grey Warden, but I am both loyal and terrified of my Listener. If you have a problem speak to her, for she is the only person to stop these orders. Orders that you told her to give."

"I never told her to play with my charge, I will tell you now… do not play with Alistair."

"Tell her, for she is the one that I follow."

"How about we tell her together?" He said, his face retaining its calm.

"How about you go down to the local apothecary get some of that blue leaf that older men need and use it to go fuck yourself?"

"Tisk, tisk Silencer, what would the Listener have to say if you told her you said that to our honored guest?"

Both looked to the side, and Lucia winced when Nazir stepped out of the shadows. She lowered her eyes, he was the second in command. She felt a little childish, sinking ten years in age to say that to the Warden Commander, but he had started it.

"While you both were having this… discussion I was speaking with the Listener."

Duncan released her throat but didn't put the bottle away. He took a step away from her and she slowly detached herself from the house but didn't give him the satisfaction of rubbing her sore throat.

"She withdraws her orders to restrain and keep the Grey Warden. She has new orders."

"What are her new orders?" Duncan asked and Nazir refused to look at him or even acknowledge that he was even there. Lucia allowed herself a moment to glorify the fact that unlike her, Duncan had done nothing to earn his respect.

"Speaker, what does the Listener wish for me to do?"

"Go after the young warden who just heard most of your conversation and bring back him and Babette."

Lucia was confused. What happened to Babette? Nazir smiled as if he could read the thoughts going through her head.

"Babette was captured by hunters and your warden stumbled upon them. They are in a cave northwest from here."

Lucia felt a rush of fear. Little Babette, captured? She felt hate course through her body after the fear and her lips exposed her fangs as she growled. No, her sire would not face death tonight. She would make sure of it.

"Go Silencer."

She moved and began to run. Behind her she heard Nazir stop the Warden Commander.

"Not you. Silencer works better alone."

* * *

Babette was not an easy creature to sneak up to. All those diagnosed with vampirism were gifted with heightened senses, some more powerful than others. Babette had the pleasure of having excellent smell. Right now it was a curse to her.

She could smell them… fellow vampires that had been captured and tortured. Their pain was a reek in the air, and their limbs were charred and scattered along the rocky cave floor. She couldn't but to accept that she would soon be joining those that helped decorate the floors with blood and sorrow. She had accepted, but not given up.

She was of the Brotherhood. She did not give up so easily. As soon as her captors had put her in this iron rusted cage she had looked for ways to escape. She had three plans, sadly none of them that she had thought up could save the Warden that had been placed in the cage with her. She had looked at the fool with eyes that were hooded and cold. This man had been a true idiot, trying to save everything and everyone. She wondered how he would take the lovely truth that she and Lucia hid from the world.

He would react, they always did. Either in anger, fear, anguish… all those beautiful emotions that she loved. That she had ever known. She had felt those when she had been in the mortal coils of humanity. Fear of that man that had approached her with his fangs drawn, anguish that she would never be able to get rid of this body that he had cursed her with… to be in the body of a small child for all time was a worthy punishment of a man who did not know any better, but it had been near her twentieth year that she had realized the usefulness of her small child-like body. Anger that humanity would then turn their backs upon her, anger that her parents had tried to kill her with their own hands. Anger was a useful emotion and she had used that to gain so much more. She had no more anger, she had no more fear… she had no more regrets.

She looked upon the Warden's face. He was out cold, they had to slam his head against the pummel of a sword to get him to stop struggling, She had to admit, he had this cute naive look that made him look like a puppy. Even she knew that he had not seen the world fully nor would he. He reminded her of what the Listener and Silencer had used to act like.

They had both been searching for some redeeming quality in the world. Even after the first three or four contracts she still saw that hope in their eyes. But time changed all things. Soon Lucia came to her to become one with the night and the Listener had… become the Listener. The only ones that couldn't see what they were doing to each other was the two that were in that eternal struggle.

Lucia had come to her to become one with the night, it had been against the wishes of the Listener who was Victoria at the time. Babette had not known what had conspired between the two of them, but she knew that Victoria cared for Lucia more than she would outwardly project. Lucia did it anyway, and when the Night Mother had come to the sanctuary Victoria grabbed at the position of Listener faster than Babette could blink.

_"Babette! Look at the new meat!" _

_ She looked idly up from her book that was rather more interesting than the newest recruits. They were thin, wide eyed, and they looked at the moment like they would last around a week. She had no interest in fresh meat, they would just end up dying in a week so what would making attachments get her?_

_ A week had passed by and both of the newbies were still on one piece. Astrid was ecstatic at the news. Babette could care less. _

_ It wasn't until that night that her views changed with one of the new assassins._

_ "Excuse me?" _

_ Babette looked up to see the one with black hair had piercing blue eyes looking at her, standing in front of her. Babette inwardly smirked and decided to play a game. She liked games._

_ "Oh thank the gods… I've been taken from my mommy and daddy by these mean people and I'm scared!" _

_ The girl did not react to that as Babette had expected. Babette had the perfect little girl voice and had the fear in all the right places, but this girl didn't look like she even believed a word that Babette had said. She instead threw back her head and laughed. She pulled out one of the seats at the table that Babette had been sitting by and turned it backwards so that she could lean against the back of the wooden chair._

_ "Thats pretty good, then tell me little girl, how is it that you can be captured but reading a very detailed history of poisons and spiders?"_

_ Babette was stunned, and she slowly looked at her book. It was indeed what the newest assassin had said. Babette was impressed, but she still had a few tricks up her sleeve._

_ "But the bad man gave it to me, he said that I should read it and not he will kill me!"_

_ "So, explain to me this, how can a ten year old read a complex book? I would think that even an assassin would be able to figure out that the words in this book are too much for even a person as old as me." _

_ A slow smile spread across Babette's face._

_ "I like the pretty pictures!"_

_ "There are no pictures in this book." _

_ Babette's face fell. What? She silently flipped through the book in her thoughts, and found that the girl was right. There were no pictures in this book that she could recall._

_ "How did you know that there were no pictures?" She asked, switching out of her "little girl" voice and switching to her more sophisticated one._

_ The girl flipped her glossy black hair before answering, "because I read that book around a week ago." _

_ Babette was pleasantly surprised. _

_ "So you are an alchemist?"_

_ "More like I study poisons, I am an archer so I have to make sure that if I miss that the target will still die."_

_ "What type?"_

_ The girl didn't answer, instead she pulled a vial out of a hidden pocket and tossed it to Babette. Babette had a feeling if she wasn't a vampire then the vial and its contents would be all over the floor. _

_ Babette looked at the sky blue substance. She opened the vial up and wafted some of the vapor to her nose. She could smell nothing. Odorless. She was pretty sure that she knew what this was._

_ "Where did you get this?"_

_ "I made it."_

_ Babette's head shot up. She made this? Few, even her, could make something this potent. This was a very rare poison, and its contents alone could kill very quickly, add that to a dagger or arrow and it killed almost instantly._

_ "Show me."_

_ "You don't have the right ingreedence, I checked." _

_ Babette couldn't help but to smile at this girl. She could tell that after this things wouldn't be so dull after all. _

She had Lucia the best out of all of the others. Lucia saw passed that child-like appearance and had spoken to Babette like the actual woman that she had felt like inside. That's why Babette changed Lucia. Lucia was her friend and didn't treat her like her outward appearance. She remembered all the fun times that her and Lucia had. When Lucia had not been on missions or when she was not speaking to Victoria, or the Listener she was with Babette. Babette almost smiled when both her and Lucia had mixed an ingredient wrong and almost had blown up half of the sanctuary. Astrid was less than pleased.

Babette had remembered Astrid and had always hated the way that she almost coddled Victoria when she had been "Victoria" and not the Listener. She would never give Lucia the time of day, even when the missions that Lucia had done flawlessly. Sure Lucia had gotten her rewards and her bonuses but there was no praise. Even Babette wanted praise from Astrid and she got it, but Lucia had never gotten it.

She felt sorry for Victoria, and she was sorry for taking Victoria's friend away from her. She was sorry for being the rift that split Lucia and Victoria apart and she felt like she was one of the factors that started Victoria's decent into what some would call madness. Not the normal Cicero type madness, but a new strange madness that one would still never come out of.

She felt her lips tingle and her fangs elongate when she thought of the night that she had turned Lucia. That blood was one of the most delicious that she had ever tasted. She'd never tell Lucia, no need to boost her ego.

A shifting of the earth as a blast of magic made her drift out of her thoughts. She quickly looked up and Alistair groaned as it happened again. The scent of magic slowly drifted into the cave along with the scent of blood. Speaking of Lucia… another explosion shook the cave making stray dust and some small rocks rain down from the top of the cave. Babette smiled, Lucia was very displeased because she almost had no control of her magic. Those men outside were being turned into bloody craters, and it gave Babette some level of pleasure knowing that they were being completely destroyed because of her capture.

She looked down at the groaning Warden. Well maybe it wasn't all her… or was it something else that was making the Silencer lose control?

* * *

_Stupid… _

She aimed a shot at another hunter watching as it completely made a bloody hole in his torso before he too exploded from the magic that she cast on the arrow.

_Useless…_

She felt a arrow knick her cheek before she aimed and blew the archer apart.

_ You will never be anything other than a tool…_

She snarled and took out her dagger so that she could vent some frustration as she hurtled into the cave entrance. She was fast, and they couldn't keep up with her. Part of that was because she was attacking near sunrise so they weren't ready for an attack. She slashed her dagger across a man's throat while kicking another straight in the chest making his rips crack and snap like falling rocks. She flipped her dagger and buried it deep in a hunter's chest while she hissed at a cut that a woman had made and returned the favor and slashed her claws across her face. She screamed as Lucia slowly buried her dagger into a lung and shredded it.

She was in a blood rage. She couldn't tell what had set her off, but something did set her off. It could be the fact that the Listener had spoken those words that were ringing around in her head or it could be the fact that they had captured her sire and had every intent of killing her, or it could be because the most untouchable person in all of Skyrim had insulted and threatened her with the ending of her life.

Lucia was just mad, and killing the hunters was one way of her letting off some steam.

Only when she was in front of the cage with Alistair staring at her like she was the second coming of his god's wife or whatever she was and Babette was looking at her with approval. No doubt she wish that she had been the one to slaughter several people in less than five minutes.

She had changed before coming here, she had been glad that the good and mask had protected her from Alistair's eyes but it had given the Listener a chance to speak to her. What she had to say was more than enough to make Lucia wish that she had not even bothered.

She was surprised that her leather armor was almost stiff with blood, and she glanced behind her. She was glad for the mask because her face turned whiter than it had been a moment ago. The whole cave was coated with blood, all of it fresh. Of course she could smell and see the burnt bodies of the vampires that had not had a rescue but there were more hunters than vampires here.

She didn't dwell on it long, they had deserved it, right? She quickly took out her lock picks and got to work.

The door swung open and Babette quickly jumped into her arms. For a moment Lucia had thought that Babette was playing the role of a child the way that Lucia had sometimes played the role of seductress but it turned out not to be the case.

"I missed you! I went out to pick flowers so that we could try that one potion again and you weren't there!"

Lucia didn't answer, she was too busy following Alistair with her senses. He looked at her bow and then to her armor, and his face turned enraged. She tensed when he ripped Babette away from her and managed to get a sword.

She stood there stupidly as the point of the sword dug dangerously into her neck. She didn't move. She didn't have to. It was Babette who struck and sank her teeth into Alistair's thigh. He yelped and Lucia quickly used his distraction against him. She kicked his sword out of his grip which was slack and managed to get Babette to unlatch her teeth from his thigh. Blood gushed from the deep wound that must've nicked an artery by the blood loss.

She could witness his face slowly whiten with the blood loss and she reacted quickly. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as the virus and blood loss ran rapid. Lucia quickly ripped off her mask and tied it around his leg to try to stop the blood loss. Once that was settled she whistled for her horse.

It was going to be a long night… or morning if you counted the sun rising


	3. The secret and the Lost

**I forgot to add it in the last chapter, but there is a Hellsing Abridged reference there! Thank you to the reviewer that reminded me of that… I completely forgot! **

Lucia felt as if she was a child again. What little memories of her childhood showed her in trouble with one thing or another. Now as she stood before the Listener and the Warden Commander she felt as if she had gone and done something wrong. At least she was not alone in the battle of "whose going to kill them first?" Babette was standing next to her. Babette still had blood on her lips as Lucia was covered in it from head to toe.

"You foolish useless tools have better have a good explanation for this…"

They had brought Alistair back, given him a potion to reverse the effects of Babette's bite, and after that thrown to the wolves, so to speak.

She hadn't seen the Listener this mad since… well ever.

The Listener had almost all of the money made from killing the emperor a while ago to construct and rebuild the Sanctuary into a livable place. She had also added on something that didn't quite make Lucia comfortable in that moment.

She had added on a room, sort of like a trial or a throne room. It had two chairs (reserved for both the Speaker and Listener,) but instead of the Speaker sitting in the smaller of the two grand chairs, it was the Grey Warden Commander and below them stood the accused. Around them the others chose not to come in but there were overhanging pocket windows reserved for the others in the Brotherhood.

"What the hell happened?" the Warden Commander growled at them.

Babette flinched and hung her head. She wasn't used to having the wrath of the higher commanders. In fact Lucia was sure that she hadn't seen Babette get into any trouble in the ten years that she had known her.

"I went to get my sire as my Listener commanded. I got there and managed to destroy the threat before releasing both of them from a cage."

Lucia hesitated to tell the rest of the tale. It was common knowledge that the Listener was on a very short fuse.

"She came and got us, Alistair looked at her and at her bow then pulled a sword on her. I reacted to protect her, and bit him."

Lucia sucked in a deep breath as the Listener's eyes went dark. They looked into the moss green eyes that ten years ago were filled with light but now they were dark and filled with sinister emotions.

"So you reacted to protect one of our own?" The Listener questioned.

"Yes."

The Listener turned to the Warden Commander and Lucia felt Babette relax beside her. What Babette didn't know was that this was not over yet.

"Why did your Warden attack?"

And so the Warden Commander started speaking and Lucia started to wish that she could be anywhere but in this room.

"He believes your members to be enemies. He has yet to accept the truly neutral stance. He is sheltered and has a strong belief in right and what is wrong. He still has to learn that the Wardens are made of many colorful individuals from many different backgrounds."

"You did not inform your Warden…. Never mind we will discuss this in at a later time. You two leave us to speak, don't get happy for I will make up your punishment later."

* * *

A long time ago before she had been changed Lucia had always climbed to the highest point of any surface that she could whenever she was upset or in need of a calming state of mind. Now she had climbed to the top of the cave to watch the waves and waited for sunrise to signal when she had to go back to sleep.

Two days ago was when Babette had bitten Alistair and he had just recently woken up human. He had not taken being with a group of assassins very well. In fact he had tried to kill Lucia on a number of occasions. At first he had been confused as to why the girl from the tavern was with all of these people, but that was before Lucia had shown him her fangs. Now he was brooding, almost a day of brooding later and he was now plotting his revenge.

She had yet to hear from the Listener. Her punishment had yet to be dealt out. Babette's punishment had been her restriction from her potions and books for a week. Lucia was worried about it.

It had to be something big, large for the Listener to be taking this long to actually administer it to Lucia. Her thoughts drifted back to Alistair. He had been absent so she had made sure to bring a dagger out with her just in case he wished her dead again.

Lucia had assumed that it was because of what she was, or that she had led him on. Now as she stood in the tree she thought that it was because he could possibly recognize her from the cave and from the road when she had shot the guard.

He hadn't asked her about anything, she assumed that he knew everything by now.

She looked back behind her a she herd the scrabbling noise of someone climbing the rocks. She looked to see the Warden Commander coming up the rocks. They were slick, yes but he was too loud… but he was a warrior and they barreled around while assassins like her moved like a whisper in the wind.

He sat next to her and she moved a small about away from him. She didn't want to be anywhere near him right now. But she would rather have been near him than the Listener or Alistair at the moment.

"Your Listener has brought a… deal to my attention."

"Is it going to be my punishment?" She asked turning toward him a small bit. She was surprised that her Listener was not conveying this information to her right at this moment.

"It is but instead of a punishment you should view this as an… opportunity."

"Opportunity?" She muttered to herself trying to figure out his choice of words. He was silent as she figured it out in her head.

"I'd rather take an arrow to the knee."

He was silent as she said that.

"If your Listener deals this as your punishment. Will you join us?"

Lucia didn't know for sure what she wanted.

"What about what I just said made you think that I wanted to join you? So now that I rejected you little opportunity what will be my punishment now?"

"If I asked you again?"

"I would refuse."

"If I conscripted you?"  
She blinked and showed him her teeth. " I would refuse again."  
He sighed again.

"Your listener said that you'd be stubborn as an ox."

She narrowed her eyes. Her Listener knew of this?

"Lucia, you strike me as a very intelligent woman. Why do you think that two Grey Wardens were in this land of Skyrim in the first place if we were not called?"

His question or statement made her freeze. There was truth in his words, and it was ringing in her ears. He had been called here! But the only reason why Grey Wardens went anywhere is because of…

"She called you here because of a possible recruit…"

Lucia remembered a conversation that her and Listener had a few days prior… The day that she had been sent to make sure that the Junior Warden stayed in the Inn.

_"Speaker, today I'm going to get a mark. Watch my back._

The man that the Listener had beheaded. He was a known vampire hunter… On the road when she had shot the guard. The Wardens were watching her and the Commander had restrained his student. Lucia's tasks… and then to bring the wrath of the vampire hunters upon them… It had been staged. He had been testing her. They both had been.

"I would rather you come of your own free will rather than having to go behind your back and to your Listener… but if I have to I will."

Lucia sighed and stood up, a scrape of boots against the rock later and the Commander was standing too. She narrowed her eyes at him but took a running start to jump off of the cliff and onto the beach in front of the Sanctuary.

She smirked when she heard him curse lightly and quickly said the password for the Sanctuary. Her smile faded as she entered the Sanctuary and really looked at it.

Of course this had not always been her home but it was the closest thing that she could get to home. The stonewalls were familiar, they held memories better than any other material that you would find in the cave with the others. She loved the cool of the stone and she loved her family. This life was easy to embrace and thrive in. There was only one rule in this business don't get caught, but if and when you got caught there was a code: Don't squeal on your family and your family will come and save you.

Lucia had busted the Listener out of jail once upon a time. They would never speak of that again, hell it was such a long time ago when they were stupid and goofing off that she doubted that anyone would believe it. Most of them didn't even believe that the listener used to smile sincerely besides her, Nazir, and Babette.

As Lucia came into the dinning area beneath the Night Mother she was surprised to see most of the family assembled there. The only one missing was Babette. She would speak to her sire later, but first there was a more pressing matter. The matter of seeing if the Listener really wanted her gone.

Light on her feet Lucia flipped over the rail that stopped people from walking over the straight edge of the balcony and guided them to the steps, she did a flip in midair and landed without a sound on the ground below. Whistles and jeers filled the cavern as Alistair scraped back his chair and left the room.

He had done that recently also, it was like he couldn't stand to be in the same room as Lucia. It irritated her but she didn't blame him. If someone had messed with her emotions like she did his, Lucia would've ripped their heart out. But Alistair was a Warden and Warden's have honor… so he did what he could in a truly neutral way. He avoided her.

She watched his retreating form with hooded eyes. She had apologized to him but he was stubborn and the Commander had told her to "give him time" so that's what she did. Alistair held grudges better than any woman she knew, well all except one but she hadn't known Alistair for several years of her life.

As Lucia approached the Listener she hoped that she was in a "listening" mood. When the cold green eyes flashed at her approach Lucia know that this was a very, very bad idea. She went against what she would normally do when her Listener was in this type of mood and approached her.

"Silencer." The Listener acknowledged her with that single word. The single word was a warning. Lucia ignored it.

"I wish to speak to you."

"We are speaking." The Listener told her and Lucia sighed. So much for making this easy. Two could play at this game.

"About you selling me to the Wardens."

At that announcement the entire table stopped laughing and chatting. It was silent in the room. Lucia at that moment wished that she had kept her mouth shut… the Listener's gaze was burning holes in her skull.

"What nonsense is this?" Evan asked as he pushed back his chair to stand.

"Stand down Evan!" Lucia warned the werewolf. He growled and didn't sit down. His twin brother stood up too. Great, just great.

Nazir blocked their way to get up the chair, which the Listener was seated at. The jester Cicero quickly took that moment to shrill something at the top of his lungs before flinging himself out of the chair giggling madly and skipping off.

"This is between me and the Listener. Back off." Lucia snarled at him as he showed his slowly pointing teeth at the Listener.

His brother followed suit. This was escalating fast.

"It stopped being you little clashes with her when she expelled you from the family!" He growled.

"I have not expelled her. I am reassigning her." The Listener replied smoothly.

"Don't pull that bullshit with me. Even I know what happens when you go to the Wardens! You loose you friends and family to fight those creatures!" Evan snarled and Lucia sighed and flipped over the table.

"Evan, I need you to calm yourself and let me handle my own problems." Lucia tried in a soothing voice.

"Don't try to defend her one minute after you challenged her! Sisth this is what I hate about you the most Lucia!"

"I'm telling you to let me handle my own problems!" Lucia hissed.

"And we all know how it's going to end up. You'll challenge her and then back off the minute she gets into her 'scary mode'. She shouldn't be allowed to be like this! She should rule with respect not fear!"

"I do not back off in fear, I back off because of loyalty!" Lucia told him. That seemed to surprise him.

"Is it loyally or something else?"

His question gave her pause. What was he implying?

"Enough, both of you!" Nazir's voice caused her to pause. Lucia glared at Evan and then approached the Listener who had been observing the exchange with a smirk on her face.

"Tell me why you decided to give me to the Wardens and I promise that I will leave without another word." Lucia pleaded, hoping that she would get an answer. Those cold eyes stared back at her.

She remembered so many emotions that once came from those green eyes. The love that was once there, the happiness. When they would sparkle when Victoria would laugh and when they would turn smoldering when she was upset.

Ice blue met the wild moss and she knew that it was stirring up memories that they both had so desperately cast aside. That night when their lips had met over the corpse of the fallen emperor. That night Victoria had fully immersed herself in the madness of the Night Mother to desperately get away from the feelings that the one kiss had stirred up inside of them.

"I have no use for you any more."

Those words spoken to a quiet room made Lucia's heart turn to ice. She knew at that moment that the Listener was thinking of that moment, and she had said what needed to be said to make Lucia want to go to the Wardens.

Without another word Lucia bowed and pulled herself from the room.


	4. The Just and the Damned

**AN: So how am I doing? Do you like, do you hate or do you just read? Any feedback would be amazing... am I going to slow? Do you want me to hurry up the story to Ostigar or would you like to see more of Lucia in her own land? **

**I hope you like this new chapter!**

He had been glaring at the back of her head for the past hour. Duncan rode ahead of them as Lucia and Alistair rode behind. Eventually they formed a single file line when the rode became narrow and so began the glaring.

Lucia had yet to speak to either of them since she had accepted the offer to join the Wardens, in fact she was sure that Alistair had not said a word after he had spluttered and argued with Duncan because of Lucia accepting the offer.

Since they rode in silence it gave Lucia time to think. She could still smell the others on her skin as they had embraced her at the time of her parting. Lucia missed them and would continue to miss them for all time. She had fond memories of them all, even of the Listener who had not come to say goodbye to her.

It was to be expected given how the Listener was the reason why Lucia was leaving. Of course each of them had gifts that they had scrounged up in such a small time. Lucia wore the most important one proudly around her neck.

Babette had given her a necklace with a blood ruby, a rare item that would help her with her thirst when she was sailing and did not have access to food. Its purpose would be to lengthen the times that she would need to drink, and Babette had also given her a water-skin filled with blood for the trip. Lucia was grateful that her sire would entrust these things to her. The others had given her things too.

Nazir had gifted her with a new bow that was carved out of dragon bone. She had only wondered how he had acquired such an amazing piece. Evan and his twin had given her a new dagger and engraved on its blade was an outline of the Night Mother before she was reduced to a corpse. Cicero had given her a bright red cloak that was to ward off the chill and to hide her leather armor until she could get a new set. The Listener had allowed her to take one of the horses with her, but other than that they had not said any other words to each other.

The first night Lucia cried away from the two wardens. She had left the only home that she knew and it was effecting her more than she had originally thought. Alistair had glared at her with no signs of stopping when they reached Solitude. Duncan made sure that the ship was correct while Lucia and Alistair were left alone in the Inn.

She had expected the questions to come up soon. Hostile air surrounded them and Alistair seemed to be more friendly when in a warm room or near fire.

"How do you live with yourself?" He hissed at her as they ordered stew and drinks from the barmaid.

Once she was away from the table Lucia answered his question.

"What do you mean? I believe that I live a very good life."

He snorted as he removed his gauntlets. She watched the skin being exposed, almost pale from cold. Their heavy gauntlets were lined with fur, but even that was not enough to help them against the chill of Skyrim.

"Killing innocents? lying and cheating to good people?"

She smirked when he said that.

"Learning stealth? Training my body to become the perfect killer? Protecting my family and providing for them? Tell me this is what your wardens do also."

"We don't kill innocents, don't steal or lie!"

"Really? What of those people who get the taint? Or those who do not survive the Joining?" His face lost his hardness and was replaced by fear, "What? Did you think that I have not heard of your special Joining ritual? At least my profession is honest about what it is that we have to do."

"Your _profession_ is sick and twisted and not worthy to be called honest or humane."

In less than a second her dagger was unsheathed and stabbed into the table. Its point was buried in-between Alistair's ring and middle finger.

"My family does not judge you for what you are, or what you have done. People murder and steal because in most cases they have no choice. Evan and his brother came to us half starved, they had been hunted for most of their life because they were different. We gave them a home and taught them how to survive."

"I'm sure that they could've gone to any orphanage they needed to!"

Lucia laughed coldly at his feeble attempt to defend his race.

"They were being hunted because of their lycanthropy. Would you allow children who could transform into those "animals" into your home?"

"They were children! They cannot help it if they had been attacked!"

"Not many think that in this land, Alistair. They believe that things that are different should be destroyed."

"Prove it." He said. She smirked.

"Look at that man in the corner and tell me what you see."

Lucia watched as Alistair glanced to the bartender who was cleaning the table of a man who was laughing merrily with two others.

"So what? He looks like your average shopkeep."

"He took one of my kind and kept her in his basement for three days and nights with no food. After that he strapped her to a post in the middle of the market and once the sun came up it drained the life from her."

Alistair's face was white, but his eyes showed her that he had yet to believe her tale.

"He sells her ashes in his alchemy store, I can take you after he is done."

"I don't believe you, but if what you say is true which I highly doubt that it is, then he should have those ashes in his store."

"Then I'll take you after dark."

"Fine. But—we wont hurt him or steal anything."

Lucia smiled at his concern for the poor bastard. She would honor his wishes though. She pulled her dagger from the table once the barmaid came back and once she left again Lucia gave him her answer.

"Come now Alistair, if I'm going to kill him I'll do it publicly with much humiliation involved and of course for some money."

* * *

Alistair rung his hands in nervous tension. Behind him Lucia was working the lock of the shop with lock picks. He had made her leave her bow behind but let her carry her dagger. He hoped that she would not use it.

"Can you hurry up?" He hissed as he looked around for guards or for Duncan who had watched them walk out of the Inn some time ago.

"Do you want to let him know that we were here, or do you want to leave no trace. I would suggest the second one because it involves us not having to pay a fine or go into jail."

"Fine. Just, I don't like this—and I don't want Duncan to happen to find us here."

He heard her breath a chuckle.

"Alistair, is this your first break in?" Before he could stutter a reply there was an audible click and the door swung open. "If it is then you need to have more _fun_."

He felt her cold hand close upon his own and he was being dragged into the shop. A low fire helped give it dim light and minimal warmth but he had to blink a few times before he could actually see the shop.

He could smell it just fine, the smells were insane in here. It felt like he was breathing in the most foul and beautiful smelling things at the same time. He looked at the many shelves that held things like empty vials and butterfly wings.

"What in Andraste is this?" He hissed and he felt her come next to him. He flinched away but she didn't seem to care at this point.

"Giant's toe." She said and swept away from him.

He looked at the ugly severed appendage and wondered what the rest of the thing looked like. He shuttered and tried to keep that though out of his head. He had enough nightmares thank you very much.

"Over here!" She hissed and he quickly followed the sound of her voice to the front of the shop.

It was upon a display plaque and labeled with red.

**Vile ashes of the vampire. Come in to see more! 10 gold per pinch!**

Inside the bag was a silver dust. He snorted.

"Here's your proof of this. Even if I was lying that these were not real it's still sick and wrong."

"It doesn't prove anything!"

Alistair jumped when he heard a body hit the floor upstairs followed by a moan. Beside him Lucia drew her dagger in a blur and he shuttered. He hated to be reminded that she wasn't human or anything close to it. She stepped in front of him and he remembered that he had left his weapons behind at the Inn. A simple break in did not require a long sword or shield. He was cursing himself of his stupidity when slow calculated steps making their way down the stairs made his heart leap to his throat.

Slowly a pair of boots were exposed to the light. After was a black dress with a hood. The hood was pulled away to reveal the face of a man, his yellow eyes were rimmed with red. His lips were clean but when he smiled his teeth were stained with the color of blood.

"Sister." He said, his slivery voice washing over Alistair making him even more fearful. This man was not human.

Lucia stood from her crouched position to regard the man… or creature.

"The human who threatens our race deserved a death that was not quick. I sped it up because I sensed others in the house. You came for the same reason that I did, sister?"

"Unfortunately brother I am only here to show a human of his ignorance."

The creature seemed to accept this, "Pity. So he is yours?"

Alistair felt all the blood drain from his face. This conversation was taking a turn for the worse.

"Yes. I wouldn't suggest you try anything foolish brother. I will kill you if you try to take him against his will."

The creature looked straight into Alistair's eyes.

"Pity, I would have liked to hear him scream."

Alistair felt panic come into his form when he saw the vampire size him up and down.

"Brother. You have gotten your vengeance. Leave so that we can continue on our business."

"I will leave as soon as I get the last part of my vengeance." He said and Alistair quickly jumped out of the way as he blurred passed him. Alistair couldn't help but to flinch away from the creature before he blurred back to the door.

He had the black bag of ashes in his hand. He hissed when he looked inside of it. He took another bag out of his dress and dumped a vial of more silver ashes.

"She was one of the most innocent of us. Even when she was starved and at her strongest she did not want to hurt them. She begged and pleaded for her life and they killed her."

"I am sorry. You knew her?" Lucia asked as she stood in front of Alistair. There was sorrow in both of their voices.

"Yes. Humans did this to her." Bitterness filled his voice.

"Humans that hate do deserve this, but do not condemn a whole race for a groups faults."

"Shouldn't I? What have humans done for you? Have you ever received a single kindness from those who knew that you had been changed?"

Alistair really, really didn't like the way this conversation was turning. He suddenly thought that breaking into a shop tonight was a really bad idea. Lucia took a step toward the creature.

"I have had one who treated me with such kindness that I developed feelings for them. A true deep friendship sparked between us and still to this day I remain loyal to them, I still love them."

Alistair wondered whom Lucia was talking about. As far as he knew there were only three humans in the Brotherhood. That scary Listener, the deep voiced Speaker, and the mad Keeper. Two were cold and calculating on the outside and he knew that the Listener was colder to Lucia to the others, and the Keeper was mad and only loyal to the Listener. The Speaker was even colder unless you could be of use to him.

"Your trust in them is foolish. They will turn on you as soon as you are not of use to them."

"I am sorry that you have no faith in them, but I have learned that trust has to go both ways. Give them a reason to hate and the hate will go both ways."

"Enjoy dying then, goodnight sister."

"Brother." Lucia nodded to him. His eyes floated to Alistair's face.

He opened the door and as it shut Alistair breathed a sigh of relief.

"Lets go." Lucia said, her voice was neutral and tired. Alistair wasn't in the mood to argue with her so he followed her as they left the shop.

Somehow the issue of the dead vampire ashes was not on his mind. Neither was the dead man that they had left in the second floor of his shop. No, he was still trying to puzzle out whom Lucia had felt such feelings for. It seemed almost impossible to him because he had seen her reveal her emotions but she was an incredible actress and it was hard to tell what was real and what was fake.

The way that she spoke inside the shop seemed real. He was so confused. He had seen her kill, seen her show sorrow, and even had seen her protect. Who was she?


	5. The Past and Future

**Sorry but I had to. This chapter is mainly filler… or I guess a giant flashback until the Wardens get to Ferelden. I hope you enjoy because this was typed in like half the time the other one was. Please read if you wish to know more about Lucia… **

**R&R for me if you like/dislike. I will tell you now that there will be no romance between Alistair and Lucia. **

Lucia opened her eyes. The rocking of the sea had not effected her as much as Duncan had told her. She was not sick nor did she miss the feel of solid land. What she did miss was the cold. It was getting warmer and warmer the farther they got from Skyrim and the closer they got to Ferelden. She didn't like the weather or the attitudes of the two wardens now that they were forced to see each other in close quarters.

Alistair was acting weird. She no longer caught him glaring at her but she caught him staring at her. As if he was trying to figure something out by looking at her. She had asked him what he needed many times but was answered with stuttering and excuses that left her confused. Did she do something that pissed him off again?

After the vampire had met them in the shop she had made sure to avoid him. She did not want him to question her on the things that she had said to him, most of them were true she did still love Victoria, but she loved the old Victoria not the Night Mother's Listener. Part of the reason why she had accepted this position in the wardens was to get away from the Listener and to start a clean slate. The Wardens could give that to her and it was something that she was willing to take because she needed to stop living in the past. The past that still continued to haunt her dreams.

She could hear Duncan moaning and crying out in his own sleep. She wondered if this was a side effect from joining the wardens and had tried to speak to the Commander about his terrible terrors but he had brushed off her questions with simple one word answers. If he couldn't speak of it then he should just tell her that, she would understand and leave him alone.

She had made him a sleeping potion that she had slipped into his hand at dinner discretely. She had made it from the stolen components that she had lifted from the shop that her and Alistair had broke into. Sure she had promised him that she would not steal, but can you steal from dead men?

Of course she had no problem stealing from a murderer and a torturer of her race. She had also been limiting the shopkeeper's days in her head. She would've killed him one way or another before she had left Skyrim. She knew that given the same chance he would've done the same or worse to her.

She walked out of her cabin and into the fresh night air. So far none of the crew complained about her only coming out at night and no one had noticed the steady decline of sewer rats on bored. She wrinkled her nose when she thought of the blood that came from those vermin. She was lucky that she could stomach the blood of animals and the fact that she had the blood ruby helped her with that, she knew that Babette could not survive on just the blood of an animal.

She leaned against the railing of the ship and thought of her master. Her sire and friend. How she missed her already. Their endless conversations about potions as well as assassinations that they partook on. Sure the stories were passed around the whole Sanctuary but somehow when Babette herself told stories about her scouting and killing of poor sympathetic people it made them even more thrilling.

Lucia sighed and stretched her body by leaning farther against the rail and pushing her arms out. For some reason she felt strangely stiff. She flipped up to balance on the rail with her hands when she saw that Alistair was approaching her. Well this should be good; he had hardly approached her since they started this little voyage.

"Hey… so can we talk?" He asked rubbing the back of his head.

"We are speaking." She said shortly and slowly stuck one of her arms straight out so that she was balancing on one hand.

"I mean in private." He insisted, and she saw questions upon questions in his eyes.

"What do you want to speak to me about?" She asked as she switched arms. The only man on the deck was the navigator, the rest were down below or up in the "crows nest."

"Its sort've… errr… private."

She regarded his stance. He was sweating, he looked very tense and was constantly searching her face for signs of hostility. He looked ready to bolt at any given moment.

"If it's to confess your love for me then I'm afraid that I must decline. I'm sorry but you are not my type."

He smiled and pretended to look wounded. He gripped his chest where his heart was and playfully moaned.

"Oh you got me, yes now I must go and drink to mend my broken heart. No, but seriously, I need to speak to you in private."

She raised an eyebrow. This was new, and the first time that he had joked with her. Was he now accepting the fact that she was different? Or was he just used to her since they had been traveling with each other for almost a week. It could be the ship, Alistair seemed more at home on the sea than he was on land. Maybe it was the weather, it was getting warmer and he no longer had to huddle in such thick layers to even set foot outside of his cabin. Alistair could just be happy because he was going to be home soon, with his wardens.

She paused as she got off of the rail and followed him. Wardens, she was going to join another family. Anxiety filled her as she actually thought about what was going to happen. Of course it would be different from joining the family that she had just fled from, her family were bonded by ties of family yes, but also the fact that all of them shared a common thing. They all shared the bonds of murder and rejection.

Grey Wardens to her knowledge shared only one thing. They fought darkspawn. She had never done that nor had she ever seen a darkspawn before. You didn't have them in Skyrim. She slowly realized that the vampire that she had met in the shop around a week ago was right. She was going to die very soon.

She followed Alistair to his room with these things on her mind. When the sound of the door shutting came to her ears she immediately focused on him. She became defensive and remembered that her dagger was located on her hip should she need it. Lucia watched as Alistair leaned against the wall opposite of her, she was sitting on his bed.

"Aright, I'm here so let's talk." She said; trying to see what he needed to speak to her about that was so private.

"Well… okay… So, I—I… Maker this is difficult."

Lucia felt amusement from his obvious stumbling of his words.

"Stop. Take a deep breath and ask me. Don't worry about me getting offended or angry. I won't rip out your throat unless you ask me nicely."

Instead of paling at her usual statements he allowed a small scoff of laughter pass his lips. Interesting, he was getting used to her humor. Maybe she would have an ally in the Wardens after all.

"Canyoutellmethestoryofyourhu manlove?" He blurted out.

Her vampire brain quickly sorted out the words. _Can you tell me the story of your human love? _She blinked and slowly smiled at his request. What a story. Could she dare to repeat the story of her love of Victoria? No one had ever known the whole tale except Lucia and Victoria.

"It's a very long story Alistair." She told him and he flinched. "But we are on this boat for at least two more weeks. Sure, I can tell you my story."

* * *

_Her dagger sliced through flesh as easily as if it would've been soft cheese. Blood spilled to the ground around her bare feet as the man's feeble struggles turned limp. She quickly looked through his meager belongings to find anything that could be of use to her after she returned to the Brotherhood. _

_ The man had been homeless and was living in a shack. His possessions consisted of mead and food. She rolled him up in a blanket and after a moment stashed his body in a hole in the ground. Don't want him to be found too early by the night watch._

_ She used her stealth to sneak back to her horse and mounted and rode across the bridge to get out of the town. As soon as she was out of the small town she quickly urged her horse into a thundering gallop to get home faster._

_ Back at the Sanctuary she was greeted by Astrid. She used the word greeted because Astrid seemed a tad kinder than she had been when Lucia had arrived. It still was not much._

_ "Your late whelp. Go wash the blood off of your uniform before you speak to Nazir." Astrid's husband greeted her at his forge. She nodded to him and quickly scurried off to her room._

_ It was cold in her part of the Sanctuary. They had tried to patch it up the best that they could with cloth on the walls and in the cracks that showed them the snow outside. It had helped for a little while until the cloth had started to shrink from moisture. _

_ She checked on them before bundling up the cloth that had been used for the homeless man's bedding and shoved that into the cracks. As soon as she was done with that she began to remove her armor and cleaned the small blood splatters that had gotten on it. _

_ She was so engrossed in her task that when a movement flickered in the corner of her eye she unsheathed her dagger in panic. It was just the turning over of a body and once a candle was lite she found herself staring at her roommate. The other novice. Victoria._

_ Her green eyes were sleepy, her long hair a mess from sleep. She had beaten Lucia back to the Sanctuary. Again. Lucia suspected that Astrid had made her go farther than Victoria on her assassinations. _

_ "Hey, you're back…" Victoria's voice cracked from lack of sleep or too much sleep. Lucia couldn't tell which one it was._

_ "Yeah, and I think that Nazir might send me back out again…" She replied as she finished her armor. She began to buckle it back up._

_ "Really? Sisith Astrid really works you hard. How about you go and see Nazir and I'll get you something to eat. After that you can go out again." _

_ That sounded like a good idea to Lucia. She checked her buckles on her armor one more time. As she looked up she saw Victoria slowly getting out of her bed and as she did one shoulder of her nightgown slipped exposing bare skin. Lucia quickly looked away as her friend slipped it back on. _

_ Lucia walked behind Victoria as the left their room and made their way out of the sanctuary and up the stairs. Nazir was usually in the kitchen and they were both heading there. She came into the kitchen and descended down the stairs. Victoria went into the kitchen to find her some provisions if Nazir sent her out again. _

_ She approached the dark skinned man. He had regarded her with sarcasm at her killing a "hopeless defenseless beggar" and had given her a small reward for her deed. He gave her another scroll and she resisted the urge to groan._

_ "Get some sleep no sense having you go out there to die. It's a little harder than a poor beggar's task. I would suggest bringing your bow with you." _

_ He dismissed her and she walked over to see Victoria sitting with two plates of food in front of her. Lucia sat down next to her and shared the meal. _

_ "I guess I get to sleep after this one. How was your mission?" Lucia asked as she took a bite of bread and cheese. She was starving, the small sack of provisions had barely lasted her the entire trip to the beggar's house and back._

_ "It was really fun, I went to Markoth and met a woman who paid me double for killing her best friend along with her ex-husband. I've never had this much gold before! I cannot wait until Astrid sends me off again. She's so beautiful and enjoyable!"_

_ Lucia listened to her talk about her mission and admiration for Astrid. She did not voice her problems with the leader of the Brotherhood and probably never would to Victoria. She would hate to see those moss green eyes cloud over with unhappy emotions. That was one of the things Lucia loved most about Victoria it was her eyes. So full of hope emotion. _

_ When they retired for more sleep Astrid visited her only after a few hours rest. She dragged Lucia out of bed before practically shoving her on her horse and making her ride out to her new contract. The cold air did wonders to wake one up and when she fully awoke she realized that she was going to have to become harder if she was to survive._

Lucia paused in her tale as Alistair had whistled. They had switched places, her grabbing a chair as Alistair had sat upon the bed watching her relay her tale.

"So, Victoria never knew that Astrid, was that her name?" Lucia nodded at the question. "That Astrid was a complete bitch to you and sent you on the harder missions in hopes to break you?"

"I don't think that Astrid meant to break me, I think that her goal was to make me a subordinate to others. She fattened up Victoria for leadership while making me know that she would never allow me any status."

"Wow. What a bitch." He commented, and he quickly looked sideways gauging her reaction. She laughed and he joined in once he realized that she wasn't going to lay open his throat or anything like that. When he stopped laughing he looked sideways at her again.

"The beggar… was he your first kill?" Alistair looked a little uncomfortable at this question and she had witnessed him to be very uncomfortable when she had spoken of the kill.

"No, I had killed many times before. I cannot remember the first person that I had killed but I know that that beggar was my first kill for the Brotherhood."

Lucia observed Alistair looked a little green at this information. She allowed him a way out.

"Do you want me to stop the story?"

"No. I want you to continue."

"Well this continues a few months later. This is when Victoria began to become something and someone else."

_Lucia stood above the cliffs her eyes scanning while her bow trained the ship that had docked in the harbor she was looking for the caption that she was supposed to kill for Nazir's new contract. At exactly the right time or the time that her contact had told her the pirate caption had emerged from the ship. She breathed a sigh of relief; she had been up in Solitude for almost a month scanning the harbor. The ship had docked that night and she quickly took her position to fire so that she could get back to the Brotherhood. _

_ Slowly she aimed for the heart, of course since she had her poison on this arrow it would not matter if she grazed the arm. Her target would die very fast. As she breathed in to concentrate she released her arrow and was satisfied with the shot. She just missed the heart and the arrow had stuck. The target was dead._

_ She quickly climbed up the mountain and to the road where her horse was waiting for her. She climbed onto his back and urged him to a run so that she could go home faster. She was excited to see Victoria._

_ Things had gotten a little odd in the Sanctuary. A new arrival with a corpse had made them all a little unnerved. Lucia did not trust nor did she like Cicero. He called himself the Night Mother's Keeper and was searching for someone called the Listener. Of course Astrid welcomed him with open arms and plotted behind his back using Victoria. _

_ Victoria had a simple mission that was messing with her head. She had been charged with spying on the Keeper, seeing whom he was talking to. Of course the lovely Astrid gave this and so Victoria accepted it without any second thoughts. When she hid in the Night Mother's coffin something happened._

_ Lucia had tried to understand what had happened to Victoria. Of course they had seen a little less of each other since Lucia had been hanging out with Babette and Nazir but when they were together they were inseparable. Only Astrid could make them actually separate. She had done that perfectly by assigning Victoria this mission._

_ It was simple, but it had gone wrong. Victoria could hear voices in her head. A woman speaking of different contracts and promises of glory. Cicero called Victoria the Listener, and Astrid had called it nonsense. _

"Wait just a moment…" Alistair interrupted her again.

Lucia had been telling her story for the passed two days without any interruptions from Alistair. She knew it had been coming when she had revealed the Listener's name.

"Yes?" She questioned.

"You're telling me that the Listener is Victoria? What in the maker's name happened to her?"

Lucia smiled at that question.

"That has yet to be reveled, but rest assured that Victoria is the Listener."

Right now they were in the dining cabin and the place was deserted. Lucia was having a half-cup of the blood that her sire had granted her and Alistair was drinking water. The cabin was dimly lite and only one of the crew was there. They didn't pay him that much attention.

"Do you want me to continue?" She asked and Alistair nodded eagerly.

_Of course when Lucia had returned to her home at the Sanctuary there was chaos that greeted her. No one would speak of it but everyone could feel the tension of Victoria and Astrid._

"Wait, just wait… I thought that Astrid was working with Victoria to lead. That she was teaching her to lead…"

"That's what I though too, but it turns out that Astrid wanted to give Victoria the Brotherhood not have the Brotherhood be wrestled from her grip by the force named the Night Mother. Astrid never believed the tale of the Night Mother and believed that it was poison that would destroy her."

_Of course Lucia returned home and gave her report to Nazir who congratulated her for the kill. This time he did it without an ounce of sarcasm. Lucia had become worthy of his friendship. He wasn't the only one who loved Lucia. Babette was often seen by her side whenever she was back from missions._

_ They would speak and laugh when making potions and poisons. The Brotherhood benefited greatly by having two alchemists in its ranks. Sickness was no longer an option and death came swiftly to those who were impaled upon poisoned blades. _

_ "Hey, you've returned!" Victoria said as she came into the room filled with supplies. Her eyes drifted among the shelves and Lucia smiled at her. Babette was out gathering supplies and so she was alone with the Listener._

_ "Yeah, I got back this afternoon. Babette snagged me before I could get a wink of sleep. How have things been here?" _

_ "Interesting. Astrid finally got a lead for the guy, and you'll never guess what he wants us to do!" _

_ "What does he want?" Lucia asked._

_ Of course Nazir had been keeping her up with what was happening in the sanctuary as she was on her assignment. After a small fight Astrid had reveled the location of the man who had the contract that the Night Mother had whispered to Victoria about. Last Lucia heard they were heading up to the ruins to meet with the man._

_ "He wants us to kill the emperor!" _

_ Lucia was silent after that. Kill… the emperor? Like as in the leader of the entire empire emperor? _

_ "What do you need me to do?" Lucia asked her friend. Of course she would do anything that Victoria would ask of her. _

_ "I need you to help me with a few contracts, since you're the best archer I need you to kill a bride at her own wedding. It'll help tremendously." _

_ "That's fine… but I also wanted to ask you something." _

"That's when I asked her about her opinions of me asking Babette about becoming a vampire." Lucia said as they were settled back in Alistair's room the fifth night.

"I'm guessing she did not like it?" Alistair guess, and Lucia nodded.

"She was very much against the fact of me becoming a vampire."

His eyes showed understanding.

"What made you… y'know actually become one?"

"Power." Lucia said. It was true, she wished to be the best assassin so that she could serve her brothers and sisters as well as she could. "That and now that I think about it, I wanted to protect Victoria."

_Astrid was livid. _

_ Of course she was livid, Victoria was giving orders to her people and Lucia could practically sense the bloodlust coming off of the woman. She has asked Babette and they had set a date for her to become a vampire, but she was still human for right now. _

_ It was a normal day, and both Victoria and Lucia were conversing in the dinning cave with Nazir, Cicero, Babette, and the others were scattered around also. Astrid came storming in and that's when things began to get out of control._

_ Astrid began to yell at Victoria, about how this was still her Sanctuary and how she had no right to order around the others. When Victoria began to yell back Astrid hit her. Lucia snapped and launched herself at Astrid and when they pulled her off of Astrid neither were unscathed. _

_ That's when Lucia witnessed for the first time the rift between the family. Of course Astrid's husband was fully behind her, the Argonion and Dark Elf mage were also behind Astrid. The others were behind us. Lucia though the same thing as Astrid. If both of them were gone then the family would be whole again._

_ That pushed Lucia to become a vampire even more early. They were going to wait until after the wedding to change her but that was not an option right now. Not any more. So that night Lucia became a vampire._

"What was it like, I mean was it painful or maybe did you see the other side?" Alistair asked her. Lucia laughed.

"I cannot describe it in any way that would make sense to you. I did feel pain but also peace. I felt like I was cold, but also on fire. I felt weak but also power flowing inside of me. When it was done I felt free but also cadged."

"And then?" Alistair questioned.

"I killed a bride at her wedding day."

_It was chaos. She was running as fast as she could to outrun guards and angry guests of the wedding. She laughed as she weaved in and out of the people. As she got to the gate she quickly mounted her horse and escaped. _

_ Lucia made it back to the Sanctuary filled with giddiness as she entered the atmosphere hit her and she quickly ran inside. Vazerara lay clutching his chest blood filled the cavern. Since she was a newborn she was sensitive to that sort of thing and she quickly exited the Sanctuary before she could do something stupid. _

_ Victoria rode to her and dismounted. It was the first time the Lucia had seen the expression that the Listener now wore regularly. _

_ "I have killed the son and planted the false evidence upon him. The emperor will now know the kiss of death brought by sisith and the Black Hand." _

_ Lucia did not really get into religion. She did not truly believe that Sisth existed or even if the Night Mother spoke to Victoria. But she did believe in Victoria and would continue to believe in her even if she sunk into madness. _

_ "Yes. Listen Victoria, something happened in there. Vazerara's hurt, there's blood everywhere and I can smell that somehow Cicero is behind it." _

_ "The Keeper? Why would he attack the argonon? Unless someone said something stupid… Silencer I need you to do me a favor."_

"It was the first time that she had shown me how deep her madness for this truly was. She bid me to go to Solitude and to kill the emperor that had just arrived. Of course I followed her orders. She had her reasons for sending me in her stead. The main reason was her Keeper and that she did not have as deep knowledge of poisons as I did. She went after Cicero after getting informed by Astrid."

"Did Astrid lie to either of you?"

"No, she did not lie to us about what she did to set Cicero off."

"What happened?"

"She was speaking ill of the Night Mother and the Listener. If I had been there I would've blown her head clean off of her shoulders. Cicero however was the only one there so he did what he could with his blade."

"So you went to Solitude to kill the emperor. Did you succeed?"

"No, I was betrayed. Astrid had been double crossing us. She was suffering from her own madness and it had caused the ruin of the whole Brotherhood. She had been dealing with the caption of the Legion and he had set a trap. I escaped and I succeeded in killing a decoy. I rushed back to my home to find it in ruins. I cannot describe the anguish that I felt when I found the corpses of those that I had called family. I wanted vengeance."

_Maro lay in a pool of his own blood at her feet. She had cut him with her own dagger so many times that he had eventually bled to death but not before she got answers out of him. Her friend and family were dead. She had nothing left to loose. After this she would walk into the sunlight and accept death, but only after she had his corpse._

_ So she swam to the boat and snuck on the ship. The guards were not expecting the Brotherhood to strike back. She killed them all in a blood rage and when she got to his room his face showed not surprise but acceptance. _

_ He did not plead with her, did not beg for his life. A part of her wished that he would've done that, it would've made it much more sweet. As she drew her arrow laced with magic the door behind her burst open. She whipped her arrow around to face the one person that she had never thought to see again._

_ "Victoria?" _

_ Green eyes filled with disbelief echoing her own flashed before her eyes. Victoria quickly looked passed her and as Lucia lowered her bow Victoria lunged and slit the emperor's throat. _

_ As his body slumped to the floor both of the women in the room pulled off their masks. _

"Then what happened?" Alistair asked.

"I kissed her."

"What?"

Lucia smiled, "I was so filled with joy at the idea of her being alive I forgot to watch my actions. It was my final act then that pushed the Victoria into the madness of the Listener. To this day she rejects the idea that love can exist between us, and now I'm afraid that my love has disappeared forever."

"And you just took it all, her coldness to you and her devotion to the Night Mother?"

"I now see that I took it all because of my love for her, and the foolish hope that she would come back to me. I remained loyal to her and I protect her still."

Alistair had sat back against the chair. Her whole story had taken around two weeks to tell and she could see that he still was confused by some parts of it. Of course she never did get a chance to answer him because there was a call from up deck that made them both forget about unanswered questions.

"Land Ho!"

They had arrived in Ferelden.


	6. The Honor and Death

Lucia had decided that she liked Ferelden. Sure it was not Skyrim, and the Wardens would never replace the Brotherhood; but it was a good half-home. It was cold enough to be like the summers on Skyrim, and that would take some getting used to, but overall the scenery was great and the air wasn't too badly smelling.

As soon as she had gotten off the ship she was back on top of her horse riding to the ruins of Ostagar. Duncan had tried to explain it all to her but she got lost at "stopping them before they come North", so she entertained herself with stories that Alistair had started to tell her about the Wardens.

They had all gone south to fight with the King and his army. From what Lucia had heard about the king was that he was more of a child than the Emperor that she had helped put six feet into the ground. The King was hoping that this was an actual Blight, something that would ravage the lands, and he would be at the center of it all to get the glory of stopping it. Lucia snorted.

Even she knew that the only thing that could kill a dragon was the dragon-born and she saw none of those laying around to help kill the thing that was the Archdemon. There was also something else on her mind besides petty Kings and battles.

Duncan had been dodgy about the whole "Joining" ritual and she could taste the lies that Alistair had begun to feed her. She knew that it had something to do with the darkspawn but beyond that she couldn't tell if they were going to eat them or go dance merrily in the forest with the things.

Beyond legends she didn't even know what they looked like, and she was certain that they were not ten feet tall and breathed acid that would strip the flesh from your bones. What she had heard from Alistair was that they were monstrous beings and that almost made him shite himself when he first saw one. She laughed and said that when he first saw the Listener he almost shite himself too. He didn't argue with that.

He also didn't argue when she had exchanged her leather armor for the outfit that she had first greeted him in when he came to Skyrim. She favored this one because of the warmth in the air, even though the air was still chilling; she would prefer to meet the King in clothing that would not offend him too much, although she suspected that he was too dense to put the symbol of the Black Hand and the Dark Brotherhood together. She just hoped that the hand on her stomach or on her armor wouldn't alert anyone else as to what she was.

When they reached the ruins of Ostagar Lucia was not disappointed. It must have been quite the fortress in its day. Now it was a crumbling ruin that would be fitting to make the stand at. Her skillful eye sought out possible perches that she could lean on to survey the camp and process information. She also used perches to collect her thoughts, and saw several that would be fit to allow her to do so.

She rode her horse right to the start of the bridge where three elves waited to take them. Lucia did not like the way the elves were treated here, but she had learned to bite her tongue a long time ago and allowed the elf to help her dismount.

"Look, I know that it goes without saying, but I wouldn't mention that you're… y'know an assassin and helped kill a king…" Alistair trailed off uncomfortably. She laughed as she pulled her cloak out of her bag before an elf took her horse away.

"I know proper social etiquette, I had to in order to kill so many people…" She said as she put the cloak on her shoulders. Leave it to the mad clown to get her a gift that would be actually useful to her.

"Right, wouldn't mention that either…" She nudged him.

"I'm joking, don't worry, I'll be on my best behavior when meeting him."

He gave her a doubtful look and she grinned showing all of her teeth. She did it on purpose in order to hopefully not make him so tense, she forgot who she was with momentarily, the Brotherhood would laugh at this, but not Alistair. He shuttered and she quickly hid her teeth and felt her mood drop, it was like he didn't like to be reminded that she was not human, even though she thought that they had gotten behind all of that. Guess they hadn't.

She walked next to Alistair as they trailed off behind Duncan. She kept on fingering her two daggers as they walked to a bridge. Every so often they would see a troop of knights or scouts making their way out of Ostagar, and every so often they would brush against her. This caused Lucia to hiss and move sharply away from them but it also caused her to bump into Alistair who would look at her funny every time she did it.

She never enjoyed being around so many people and certainly not being around so many knights. Crowds of stupid mindless people in a city she could deal with, being around so many soldiers made her jumpy. She had only once been in a barracks and that was when she went to kill two very important knights for a contract.

A contract that ended with their demise and her almost a thousand gold more rich. Still, she did not trust knights more than a child could throw their heavy armor. She kept her eyes on the ground and tried to keep her hood up.

"Duncan!" A voice boomed and Lucia flinched away from the sound as she drew one of her daggers in a blur. Alistair's hand closed dangerously tight on her wrist. She hissed and he nudged her.

"No, it's the king!" He whispered as low as her ears could hear. She quickly hid her dagger and turned to look at the man in golden armor with a smile that could rival Alistair's.

She stood behind Alistair keeping her head low. She activated her stealth and became almost invisible to anyone at a passing glance. Too bad the blond had already seen her.

"Ho there friend, might I know your name?" He asked and Alistair shared her cursing in ten different languages under her breath.

Lucia quickly pulled down her hood exposing her face and coming out of her incognito stance. She kept her eyes downcast, like a good little maiden, and gave a shaky curtsy.

"Lucia, you majesty." She said shifting while looking down. Alistair moved and her eyes struggled not to follow him. She had to keep them on the ground! Let this man think that she's just another foot soldier, not someone that could kill him.

"I hear you hale from Tamriel, tell me have you heard news of the current Emperor? I had heard that he narrowly escaped the Dark Brotherhood and I hoped that he was well."

Behind him she saw Duncan give her a look and out of the corner of her eye she saw Alistair stiffen and shake his head. She turned her eyes back to the ground.

"I am but a poor mercenary where I'm from sire, I did not keep up on current events."

"I see…" He said, his voice was full of disappointment and she didn't have to look up to see that he was completely oblivious of the danger he was in. Less than two feet in front of him stood an assassin that could kill him over one hundred different ways in less than a second. If she wanted to be creative then she could give herself a few more to destroy the pretty little golden armor that he was wearing.

He lost interest in her and she allowed her breath out and to loosen her grip on the hidden dagger. Her fingers throbbed as the cold blood came back into them and her arm was gripped by Alistair who quickly took her out of that situation and into the main camp.

"Come on, no need to wait here any longer for your very short fuse to light and there to be no king and no new warden."

Lucia smirked as she followed him through the camp. Alistair over the past few days had been overjoyed to teach her the different things about Ferelden, she suspected that he studied different things of history. She had refrained from asking personal questions, he had tried to rein in his curiosity and she had yet to tell him _all_ her secrets. She refused to tell him how many people she had killed or who she had killed, especially the ones that she had killed accidently by drinking their life's blood out of them during an interrogation.

That was the thing about being a vampire. She could tell so many things by a person's blood. She could see flashes of memory, emotions, things that are imprinted in blood. Blood runs thicker than water in this case, and it was often done if her target would not give me the information that she needed. She did not enjoy this way of interrogation, it flooded her mind and she never enjoyed that feeling. She also believed that everyone was entitled to a certain amount of privacy about their lives, no one needs to know that much about someone.

"Hey, hello? What are you staring at?" Alistair asked her as she blinked and came back to the real world. She caught his hand and he winced as she showed her inhuman powers. She quickly released his wrist and gave him a smile, not too wide because showing her fangs would only make it worse.

"Sorry, got lost in my thoughts," She admitted as she walked with him.

He didn't say anything for a little while, while she walked beside him she scanned every available thing. Tents near this place were large and would have to be carried in wagons. The horses were no where to be found, and even the war dogs were kept far away from the brilliant royal tent. Her opinion of the King was lowering as the opinion of Alistair was rising. This wasn't good.

"You just need some sleep, here are the Warden Tents. Let's find our tents…" He said and she looked at the sun. Indeed, it was midday, she usually would be asleep by now.

Sleep found her fast once Alistair and her had found an empty tent. She stayed awake long enough to help him out of his armor before sinking to the bed wrapping the cloak tightly around herself.

* * *

Sunset had her crawling out of her bed and rubbing her eyes. She felt her pendent hit her chest and gripped it to keep it from swinging. It glowed and she felt a dry ache in her throat. After rummaging through her pack she found a bottle and drank its contents, starving off the thirst for now.

She felt the tingle of excitement as well as a sinking feeling of homesickness. Both of which could be cleared easily. She just had to go and do it.

She was just about to leave the tent when a pile of blue caught her eye. She noticed also that her armor rack had been filled. Her bow was lying next to her two daggers, but something else was also hanging there. She looked at actual armor for the first time, and it looked like it was for her.

She looked it up and down and deemed it non-stealthy and ignored it. Sure it was shiny, and new but she chose stealth over beauty, she heard how noisy Alistair had been in armor similar to that and had no wish to be caught right now. She strapped her weapons to her back and hip before exiting the tent.

She heard laughter echoing through the camp as she exited her tent. She heard snores of people already retired to their tents. Other noises of people using their tents for everything but sleep but she ignored those and instead headed out of the camp and to the large bridge that they had passed earlier.

She crossed the grand bridge using her shadows so that no one could see her, even by the light of the moon. She arrived at the other side and walked to the far cliff where she had seen a large ring of pillars and a crumbling high post. As soon as she got there she climbed in order to get a good view.

From this high point she stood and viewed the valley that they would be fighting the final battle with. It was not the worse place but it was very stupid to engage the horde head on, or that's what Duncan said the King wished to do. They would overwhelm and then they would surround and kill. This was not going to be good.

She narrowed her eyes as she saw the King riding in the valley. He had his armor on which looked more like a statement or a target. The blades of the enemies would cut through the soft gold armor quicker than one of her arrows flying through the sky. And yet no one tells him of this. She certainly was not going to draw more attention to herself, to draw attention was to die, or such was the code of the assassin. If you were going to draw attention, kill everyone who saw you make the statement, that way you can do it again and still get away with it.

She shook her head, irritated. She was still an assassin, but she should think like a Grey Warden. A great and mighty Grey Warden. She held her head up high, before she realized one thing. Lucia didn't know how to act like a Grey Warden. She shrugged, not too upset about it. That's why you read and learn. She had to learn how to be a Brotherhood Assassin; the same could be said about the Grey Wardens.

"Maker, what is she doing up there?" Was muttered before she heard the loud footsteps of Alistair as he came to where she was.

"Hey, Lucia! What are you doing up there!" He yelled, cupping his hands to his mouth so that she could "hear" him.

"I could hear you just fine when you were trampling the earth beneath your great feet Alistair, no need to shout to let the whole world know where I am." She said sarcastically.

"Err, right. Can you get down from there?" He called and she guessed he was not really comfortable with shouting at her while she was almost fifty feet above him.

"Rest assured Alistair, I will not fall and if I do I will surly not die." She scolded him like a mother would a child. She could survive this "fall" with just a tiny jolt of her knees. One of the vampire's gifts.

"What are you doing up there anyway?" He called and she sighed. The whole camp would know if he kept on shouting to her like this. The voices carried better at night, since there was not as much daytime noise.

"I'm searching the patterns of the patrols, making sure that they are alright."

"You sure that you're not watching the King?"

"Alistair, if I wanted to kill him I wouldn't do it up here—"

"I know, I know, it was a joke. Maker, you are wound up."

Was she? Lucia couldn't really tell why. The wind was calm; the whole night was actually very calm. Almost too calm. The dead before the storm…

Screams filled the air coming down from the valley. She turned her head to them and her vision zoomed on a group of Elves with the King. They weren't the only creatures down there, something big was roaring and slaughtering the Kings Guards as the Elves scattered like leaves to the wind. Other small abominations ran after the scattered elves and she saw several of them fall under twisted blades.

Blood filled the air and the rotten smell of the creatures' blood overcame her and she gagged. These things smelled worse than Falmar elves! They looked worse too. Drawing her bow from her back she gathered her magic and got a few shots off exploding the faster running creatures that screamed.

"Alistair, raise the alarm!" She yelled as she jumped down from her pillar. He was already off and she charged after him to the bridge. She put two fingers to her mouth and let out a high pitched whistle as she ran.

Duncan met them at the bridge and before he could get two words out she moved passed him to the rail. She jumped from the great bridge doing a flip as she did so. She had just enough time to get off another arrow as the Kings party abandoned their mission for glory and decided to run.

She hit the ground making a crater as she did so. She knelt there allowing a few of the men's horses to pass her as they retreated into the camp before looking up. She waited for a few seconds before readying her bow again.

Lucia felt her mount before it got to her. She did an impressive flip onto it as it ran and urged it into battle as she shot arrow after arrow from its bare back. The King was dragged from battle and his soldiers abandoned the panicked elves as they retreated.

When she was close enough she did a series of clicks and a long low whistle and her horse dug it's hooves into the ground before throwing her into battle. She tucked and rolled when she hit the ground. The remaining elves that were alive had managed to escape the monsters, and they now faced her. She felt her throat constrict as she looked at them. They were larger up-close.

The leader roared and came at her with its shield and large sword. As it swung she prepared herself. She flipped over its outreached arm and slid to the side. As she slid she got a shot off and exploded the beast as the next one stepped forward to challenge her. As it's arm came swinging to her, she kicked it the way that it was going to that it's momentum made the beast stumble and it gave her an opening to shoot. Gore coated the ground as a hole that size of her head was blown in the beast, right where its heart was. She flipped back a few times and prepared another shot and took off the heads of several of the smaller ones.

She looked just as a shield crashed into her head and stars flooded her vision. It didn't stop her from flipping on her hands and abandoning her bow for her daggers. Both came out to play and they buried themselves into the beast's throat. He gurgled and died as she moved to the next one. Her luck soon ran out as fire laced up the length of her back. She screamed in pain and kicked the beast that lashed her with its sword, feeling the satisfying crunch of its ribs caving into its torso.

Lucia blocked a strike with her dagger but feeling the power of the strike went up her arm and almost made it go numb. She snarled as she felt her knee get kicked out from under her.

This was it… the end… She though as she knelt and tried her best to block those blades. She had foolishly rushed in when she shouldn't have bothered. Assassins were not heroes.

They did not save people; they did not feel like this. They would not lay their head on a chopping block for another; they would not fight with honor. Why had she gone and done this? She could've easily saved herself and not come here at all. She could only blame Alistair's noble side for rubbing off on her.

She felt the beast part as their apparent leader came to her, she looked at the pointy end of an arrow, and a smile came to her face. She was going to be shot down with her own bow and arrow. Fitting end for someone who had spent more than half his or her lifetime killing and stabbing people in the back.

Just as the arrow was about to be released there came a great battle cry and Alistair slammed into the beast's side causing it to release the arrow and Lucia leaned out of the way to allow it to kill one of the things behind her. She kicked off the ground twisting so that the hidden blades in her heels came out and she spread her legs to twist on her hands. They were long enough to slash and bash the circle away from her. Gripping her daggers she flipped and slashed the throats of two of the smaller ones while more Wardens showed up to finish off the others.

She was breathing heavily as she sheathed her daggers and leaned heavily on her bow. She needed blood now. The others quickly looked at the bodies with grim lines on their faces. Lucia blamed the King and his need to have an honor guard with several messenger elves.

"Lucia?" Alistair asked as he came over to her, "Maker your back!"

She needed blood now!

She lurched away from him and muttered something incoherent about her tent as she clicked and whistled for her mount. A moment later she was a top of the horse and racing into camp as fast as she could. She needed her bag, her horse would follow her scent to the tents.

A few minutes later, and one vial emptied had Lucia hissing on her stomach as her back healed the damage from the blade. It would be a very faint scar, but a scar no less. She had already twisted her leg back and that had heeled better than she thought.

Alistair came into the tent as her back finished stitching itself together. She sensed something off about him and looked at his grim face.

"Duncan wants to see you up by the North Side of camp. He asked me to show you where." Alistair said, Lucia sensed something off and almost depressing about the way Alistair said that. It was as if Alduin the World Eater had returned and was going to kill them all with fire and the Voice.

She stood up and as she did so she felt her legs fail her and the floor of the tent rushed to her. Alistair rushed and caught her as she fell and she felt her mouth come very close to his neck. Covered in the creatures blood as he was she could still sense his blood pulsing through his veins. She quickly pushed him off and stumbled away from him.

"I'll be there, meet me outside the tent." She snarled, afraid for him. He blinked and she caught a look of hurt pass through his eyes as he did what she wanted. She would rather him hate her than her to take this one thing from him.

If she were to drink his blood, nothing would be a secret from her. She did not want to have to go through that with him. She would avoid that at all costs. She fingered her Brotherhood armor before throwing it aside and settling on the blue and silver armor hanging up near her. She was going to act like one, might as well dress as a Grey Warden too.


	7. The Magic and the Craft

She didn't know how, but somehow Duncan had gotten ahold of her measurements and made an almost fitted piece of armor for her. The metal was silver and the thick leather that went under it was blue. She had a cape that she could attach to the back of the armor if she wished and a hood with a removable mask that were both blue. Some parts of the armor looked like they had metal weaved into them but were either thick leather or very thin metal. The whole thing was light and when she moved it moved silently with her.

Alistair met her on the outside of the tent. A grim line settled on his face and he looked like he was trembling. She wondered why, and after smelling the fear and anger in his scent she wondered what had him worked up?

He didn't get a chance to say; in act any attempts of a conversation from her resulted in an immediate grunt or silence as an answer. She just gave up after a little while and followed behind him. It took some getting used to, the stares as she made her way up to the main camp where the King was staying, that and she wasn't used to wearing a cloak so that added a nice little dramatic effect.

People pointed when she walked passed and some of the servant elves gave her a nod of respect. Lucia had little to no idea why her little stupid heroics were being rewarded with fame. Now the whole camp must know that she wasn't human, she wondered how long it would take before they started to hunt her with fire and silver weapons.

Alistair led her up the main camp, passed a blacksmith who was yelling at an orange haired elf, and up a ramp to another part of the keep. It must have been one of the main halls where the lords of Ostigar once sat on thrones made of stone. She had seen structures like this, mainly in Jarl's halls, but they all had roofs on them. Alistair didn't let her stare at the stone long before they were going up another ramp to a side cliff where she could see the bridge and the lower camp below them. Of course the little people on the bridge or valley could not see all the way up here, in face Lucia probably wouldn't have know of this place if Alistair hadn't shown it to her.

She could smell Duncan here. The wind was blowing his scent to her, along with another scent, spiced with magic and the rot of old blood. At once her immediate response was to bare her fangs and hiss as the blood hit her nose, she could smell evil and rot with poison inside of this cup that he was slowly bringing toward her. His footsteps were calculated, and Alistair blocked her only way of escape short of jumping off the cliff. She wondered why they were making this so hard for her, she had agreed to be a Grey Warden, her armor was the same as their own, now was an initiation since she had killed the things that they strived to get rid of in this world. The Darkspawn had been her final test.

"At last we come to the Joining. We greet a new sister into the order, please step forward Lucia." He said still walking toward her with the cup in hand.

She didn't like this. Not even in the Dark Brotherhood had she done anything like this. All of her instincts were screaming at her to turn around the take the jump off that cliff. She ignored it and took the step foreword. Alistair physically relaxed after she did that. Duncan handed her the silver cup and she looked at the dark rot that was swirling inside it.

Lines formed on the top of the drink, it looked like grease from the tops of some stew that was served in taverns. The smell of the stuff coated the back of her throat and would have made her loose her lunch, if she had eaten anything recently, blood didn't count. She struggled not to breath in the harsh fumes, or to look at the thick slimy liquid that deserved to be thrown into the deepest pit in the world had to offer.

"What am I supposed to do with it? Throw it on the ground and light it on fire?" She asked hopefully, she was glad that she kept her curiosity of what was in it to herself.

"No, don't do that!" Alistair called quickly from his place guarding the exit she smirked at his facial expression. He had turned from brooding grim, to terrified, and then back to grim.

"I was just joking, the purpose of liquid in a cup is to _drink_ it correct?" She asked Duncan and he nodded.

"Can I ask what's in it?" She asked, betraying the voice in her head screaming at her, if she knew what was in this rot then it would decrease the chances of her actually drinking it and increase her chances of jumping off of the cliff.

"You really, really don't want to know…" Alistair murmured softly, soft enough so that Duncan could not hear him but she could. Lucia sighed and slowly tipped the cut, swirling the liquid.

"Will this kill me?" She asked, locking eyes with Duncan. He did not look away at her intense stare, but his own stare had burning intensity.

"Yes." He said, and then added, "It could be now, or later, this will eventually kill you."

She could guess the next part, but asked it anyway.

"And if I choose to not drink it I will be killed just for knowing that," She guessed. He didn't say anything, he didn't have to. She closed her eyes and pinched her nose.

"Guess then I'll take my chances," She murmured and brought the cup to her lips.

She could still taste the foul lumpy liquid that made her choke. Stubborn as she was she knew that she couldn't gulp all of it down and as she gulped it she felt the poison in it start to work. She gasped as her knees betrayed her and white spots flooded her vision. She hadn't felt like this in a long time, this sort of pain. It felt like she had decided to lay with burning corpses, and at the same time have someone stab millions of daggers into her skin.

Through this all she heard a roar of a dragon and she fell into the abyss.

XXXXXXX

Well, she knew one thing. She wasn't dead. She could still feel the foul liquid coating her tongue and she could feel the warmth of a light blanket. She bet Alistair put it on her, Duncan knew that she didn't have to keep warm.

Speaking of the devil… as she opened her eyes she blinked to find herself in their empty tent. His armor and weapons were gone and as she groaned and slowly sat up she found that his scent was more than a half-day-old.

She looked over at her new armor, right next to it on the small table were her folded leathers. If she wasn't in her armor anymore, then she had to be… She looked down and saw someone had dressed her in clothes that weren't hers. She took a sniff of the fabric and came back with the spice of, Alistair? He would seem like the one to give her clothes… She would have to thank him for that, right after she kicked his ass for not having a good enough poker face and making her worry about something that she ended up living through anyway.

She dropped the shirt and looked at the tent opening. Duncan came through it a moment later humming while carrying a bowl full of steaming, mouthwatering, liquid. She felt her tongue sweep across her lips as she smelt that heavenly smell.

He smiled as she gripped the steaming bowl in her hands, wincing at the heat but not caring as she gulped down the delicious liquid. It tasted differently from the blood that she was used to, but in a good way. Spice had been added that made this blood taste aged and more fruitful. It was like savoring a fine wine.

She licked her lips as she devoured it, making sure that not a drop was wasted. As she was done she set the bowl down and made sure that she had not gotten any on her borrowed shirt or none was staining her skin. She found no marks to indicate that she had spilt.

Her head cleared and she felt her spirits lift with the help of the strange blood. She wondered what it was and after she set the bowl down she sent a questioning look to Duncan.

"How long have I been out?" She asked.

"The rest of the night along with half the day." He said and she nodded. Sounded about right, okay time for the harder questions.

"Alistair?" She asked and again Duncan nodded his head.

"Rest assured he is safe, he has been charged with leading the other recruits through the Wilds."

She felt her brow furrow. Other recruits? Then why was she chosen to take her Joining before them? The question was on her lips when the tent flap was opened and another Warden joined Duncan.

"Sir? The King wishes to speak with you." He said and nodded to Lucia when he was done relaying his message.

Duncan sighed heavily before turning back to her.

"Take the rest of the day to rest or train. I would ask that you don't leave the camp, or go after Alistair." He said after the Warden bowed and turned to leave.

She gave him a curious look and a smirk as he read her mind. She wondered if he could do it if she were at her full potential, guarded expression being one of the things that she would learn to work on.

"Why not? I'm sure that he must be worried about me, seeing as I could've died at any time. I would rather have him think me alive than dead." She said simply pulling her shirt above her head and tossing it onto his bed before moving to her armor.

Duncan's messenger cleared his throat awkwardly before shuffling out of the tent. Duncan, however, had different plans. He grabbed her arm before she could touch her new armor and held her fast.

"He must do this on his own. This is as much as a task as it is for the other recruits. Alistair must learn to lead if he is to survive. If you are there then you will happily take the burden for him, and that I cannot have."

"Is this an _order_ commander?" She asked wrenching her arm out of his grasp. Her eyes glinted dangerously as she slowly raised her lip to expose her fangs.

She didn't really know why she was acting like this. Her body felt a small bit funny, as well as it being hyped up on whatever blood was in that bowl. She felt raw power pumping in her veins. It was like she was more invincible than usual, she was ready to challenge and if she got away with it then it gave her a sort of jolt of satisfaction. Duncan would have none of that today.

"Yes, it is." He said simply and she felt the fight drain out of her. Just as fast as it rose it was gone and she felt her hand fly to her head as it drained her to the point of sitting down on the bed.

"Sorry, Duncan, don't know what got over me," She admitted rubbing her head.

"Take some time to get used to your new powers. If you are looking for something to do today, I know that the Warden Blacksmith, Orin is looking to see how you like your new armor."

New powers? Blacksmith? She blinked and realized that she was now a full Grey Warden. Whatever she had done in the past was now irrelevant as she banded together with her new brothers and sisters to fight those beasts that she had challenged yesterday.

She nodded and Duncan left before she could ask anything else. She sighed and leaned backwards on her bed. Of course that left her with thoughts of home, thoughts of her old family, old but still her family. She shook her head, now was not the time to be thinking of them. Right now she needed thoughts of something that wasn't going to distract her. Damn Duncan and his calm reasoning.

She got up and quickly put on some of her traveling clothes and strapped her bow and quiver to her back. She fastened her hair up into a high ponytail before exiting the tent in search of the Warden Blacksmith.

XXXXXX

Duncan was a sly fox. She stood, leaning against a pillar as she looked at the place where the blacksmiths had set up their shops and wares. There were around five of them. Each one was separated by trees and stone so she would have to guess which one was Orin. Typical of Duncan to not tell her what he looked like or anything that would allow her to tell which one he was. This was a test inside a test. A way to see if she could navigate and truly be a sly assassin in a different land. She accepted this challenge of finding her way without someone to guide her.

She pushed off the pillar and then leaned back against it. She could not for the life of her get this infernal sense out of her head. She understood that Grey Wardens could sense the beasts and the link worked both ways but still. She had no way of actually wielding it to her will. She could try it by scent but the mixtures of metal and sweat discouraged her from using this. She was truly senseless.

"Looking to buy a new set of armor dear, or just looking at the sweating men?" A wise, calming motherly voice said to her.

Startled she turned in surprise and looked at an elderly woman, taller than her and much older smirking deviously at her. Lucia was stunned to the point of not replying until she got herself under control.

Lucia was going to say something snarky back to the elderly woman but she held her tongue. This was a new land, she may be an assassin… or ex-assassin but now she was a Grey Warden. They don't address people the same way.

"I was looking for the Warden Blacksmith… I'm a Grey Warden…" She trailed off hopelessly.

The woman chuckled to herself, "I know dear, I was just giving you a hard time. I am Wynne, and you must be one of the recruits that Duncan brought with him. I saw your fight from the bridge, I have to say that he picked well."

Lucia felt the urge to hide her face, not used to people complementing her fighting skills, mainly because she never showed them to anyone but her Brothers, and a complement was not easy to find in their line of work. She gave the elderly woman, Wynne, a chance and gave her a soft smile and a light bow.

"I must say that he did. I am very confident in my skills."

"I know dear, now you said that you were looking for Orin? He is actually not here, his smithy is only for Grey Wardens and is in their camp. I could use a hand getting down there actually, these old bones aren't what they used to be and I need to have a chat with one of the Warden mages. Could you lend a hand to a dear old woman?" She asked Lucia.

Lucia instantly offered her arm, sure that any Grey Warden would help this elderly woman go about her business. She was a crafty old woman, Lucia understood that after she showed her the smithy in the Warden Camp and then set off to do her business. Wynne had just made the escort seem like one, in all reality it was just a cover-up so that she could show Lucia where the Smithy was without actually escorting her. It saved Lucia valuable pride and gave Wynne some bonus points in her eye.

She waved to the elderly woman as she went to speak to another, this person not wearing the scarlet robes that Wynne was wearing but wearing the blue and silver colors of the Wardens. She smiled at Lucia before they both disappeared into a tent, which smelled strongly of herbs.

Lucia made a mental note to talk to that Warden and exchange plant information. She entered the Smithy where two dwarves and a man were laughing as they struck hot metal with hammers. She smelt the sweat all right, it was very hard not to.

"Orin, this ones yours, she looks like she'd be around yer size!" One of the dwarves yelled and the man laughed as he took a spare rag and wiped sweat from his brow.

"Can I help ye lass?" He asked as he approached her. He had a thick accent that she couldn't place, but she liked it.

"Duncan said that you made my armor, I wished to thank you for it," She said giving him a bow. He smiled.

"Well why aren't you wearin' it then? Lass if ye wish to have fine armor, then ye best be wearin' it around! Can't know what it does if ye only be wearing it in battle! Go and fetch it for me, and we'll show you how fine a' piece of armor can be!" He said and she nodded before running off to do what he said.

Usually she would've run off and not come back, explored her armor on her own, but with Alistair gone and Duncan having his meetings she did not have any entertainment. With no wish to rest of train she went off to fetch her armor. Might as well see what it could do.


	8. The Calm and the Storm

When Alistair returned in the late evening he found her by the Warden's main fire. Others were around the fire but she sat alone. Lucia didn't look up as he approached or when he sat down, she was too busy fiddling with her armor, trying to remember everything that the blacksmith had shown her. It had almost been too easy to manipulate him into showing her everything that she had wanted or needed to know. Too easy to pretend to be a scared little Warden that needed help. It was like these people did not know how to see fake smiles they were easy prey for any trained assassin skillful in the art of manipulation, and sadly Lucia had plenty of that under her belt. She would have to remember how gullible these people were the next time they had threats of assassination over their heads, something like this could be accomplished and they'd be dead.

As soon as Alistair sad down beside her there was a sound of a spring releasing and he jumped as a small hidden blade popped out of her gauntlet. She smirked and with a flick of her wrist sent it back into her armor.

"You're like a kid at Christmas," He commented dryly as he sat back down. She looked out of the corner of her eye at him and gave him a small smile.

"You'll get your hug in a minute, just let me fix this," She said and he gave her a puppy dog look.

"I've been gone for almost two days and you already found a new friend! I'm hurt that you'd replace me with a blade!"

She smiled to herself and released the blade one more time before facing him. She had her hood and mask up to hide herself, with it off she felt too exposed, and her face well when she saw that he had dark bruises along his face. She reached up to touch them with a pale hand and she felt his fever burn a hole through her skin.

"Girls gotta have friends, what happened to your face?"

While she was asking that she was turning his head in her hands seeing the bruise from all angles. His breathing sounded fine, and his heartbeat was strong in his chest. She was glad that he was all right but not happy that he looked like a runaway cart had hit him.

He brushed off her hand and she did not return it to his face. He must not want to be coddled and she respected that by returning her hands to her task at hand, making sure that she knew the blade workings inside and out. She had memorized the blueprints of her armor and made sure that she memorized her armor by the blueprints. It would take a while but at least she got the basics down. This armor was like her, full of surprises and pointy things that could kill you. She had been especially happy about the removable gauntlets and had charmed her way into another pair. With the new pair she had put a poisoned blade, coated with her favorite poison that she carried with her at all times. It was no longer toxic to her, but to a human it could be deadly.

"Alpha got me with his shield, right when I was distracted too." He said and she smiled.

"You should have someone look at that and don't tell Duncan that you got hit in the face with a shield, he might scold you and gods know that neither one of us really want that to happen."

Alistair made a noise of agreement and slowly rolled down the log so that his back and head were supported by it. Absentmindedly Lucia reached down and ruffled his hair before returning to her gauntlet. They sat there for a few moments before Lucia asked him a question.

"What's on your mind?" She asked him and he sighed as she dropped her tool and kept her hand on his head, he was like a dog, always craving a touch, she ran her fingernails against his scalp. She didn't dare do it too hard, too hard and her fingers would be touching his brain.

"Tonight's another Joining," He sighed and she nodded.

"Do you think that the new recruits are going to make it?"

She asked the question because she assumed that Alistair could tell who had a good chance and who did not have a good chance. Lucia had no idea who these people were, if they were male or female, if they were tall or short, if they were in good shape or not ready for combat. Alistair should've known this if he was being a competent leader. Since she had only had to lead a group once she had only one chance to do that one right but she had to recognize these things in order to make her mission successful.

"I don't know, I really don't have any idea."

Lucia understood. This was hard for him. He must be very tired from doing this whole thing. He was not used to leading and it must be very stressed. She didn't press him, but knew that he would probably have to go soon to do the Joining. Poor guy, he probably had ties to these people that were going to do the Joining.

She gave him one last pat before picking up her dropped tool and continued to work on her gauntlet. A few hours later Duncan came to the fire. He looked tired and Lucia smelled some sort of emotion coming off of him. She couldn't tell what it was but she looked up at him and some sort of understanding emotion passed between them. There was something wrong but that something should not be said out loud. Taking a small whiff of the air she knew what that was and her eyes flashed and she sighed.

"Alistair, the new recruits are waiting at the tower."

Alistair looked as if he was not going to actually go to the tower. He looked like he would rather take on the whole darkspawn horde before going to meet the recruits at the tower. Lucia got up and grabbed her cloak to follow Alistair to give him some support but was stopped by Duncan.

The look in his eyes showed that he knew that she knew what he was hiding from Alistair. He would need to speak to her on it and the only way he knew how to do that was to get rid of Alistair. Alistair did not even notice and Lucia looked after him, worry blossoming in her chest.

"Lucia, may we walk?" He asked her and she gave one more look at Alistair, wishing that she could go with him. Finally she nodded and took his arm and walked with him after putting her blue cape on.

He walked away from the Warden camp and to a nearby cliff. They stood there, looking at the battlefield and at soldiers were starting to light fires around the cliffs and battlefield.

"I would ask that you don't tell Alistair for the time being."

"You are referring to the fact that you are very close to dying, or becoming darkspawn? I can smell it on you; you knew that I could smell it on you. Why would you choose met to tell this to? I am not going to just keep something this large from Alistair, I may be an assassin but I know when to lie and when to tell truth."

"You may tell him after the battle tonight, but until then I would ask to keep this between us. I do not believe that Alistair would make it through the battle if he were looking out for me, and he understands that eventually all Wardens receive the Call."  
Lucia hissed through gritted teeth. Turning angrily from Duncan to watch the moon slowly rise in the sky. The battle was tonight and the Wardens were trying tonight to boost their numbers as much as they could before it. She did not understand half of the things that Duncan did but she assumed, like the Listener, he had a plan. There was only one problem with Duncan's plan, she didn't want to be a pawn in it. She would not be a pawn in someone else's plan again.

"Think very carefully before you include me in this stupid situation of yours, Duncan, because one wrong move on your part and I end up breaking everything that you plan along with half the bones in your body. I do not like to be used and I will not be used again. I will not tell Alistair as long as I am allowed to sit in on the Joining. I would like him to know that he has some form of support. I know how it is to watch people die and not be able to help him, it's as much for him as it is for you."

* * *

The Joining included two people of very colorful backgrounds. Who was she kidding? It included a thief and a Knight who was a coward. Both would not stop whining after she arrived and stood in the shadows. She made sure that Alistair could sense her there but the others had no idea that she was currently above their heads shrouded in a coat of darkness. She enjoyed her stealth and looked forward to watching this undetected. It did not surprise her that both of them could not sense her, she had a lot of practice and learned from the best. She however was pleasantly surprised when a third recruit joined them.

Lucia watched the woman who clanged around in armor more noisy than Alistair's. Her face was hard and it was exposed by long blonde hair that was tied in a knotted braid down the woman's back. A shield with a wooden plaque stamped over it and a sword with a symbol on it were the woman's weapon of choice. She was a warrior then. Not very surprising because of the way that she carried herself, like Alistair she moved loud and obnoxious.

Drawing her bow from her back and notching an arrow in her string she heard Duncan approaching. He looked up at her and she glared down at him. He didn't allow his eyes to linger upon her before focusing on the new recruits. Nested in his hands was the white chalice, she had a flashback to drinking from the same cup and she shuttered.

"We arrive here at the Joining," Duncan started and she saw every one of each of the recruits eyes trained on that white goblet.

Duncan took calculated steps, still speaking, to the small table where the recruits gathered around him. The warrior girl watched Duncan very carefully as he placed the chalice onto the table and looked at Alistair who had gone white as a sheet. He looked incredibly uncomfortable and shifted away from the group.

Alistair began to speak after a moment and Lucia closed her eyes at the words. He was scared, he was nervous, he did not want to be here all of that could be told from the level and volume of his voice, she knew it well enough to know the difference between being brave and when he was putting on a brave face. Alistair did not enjoy death, he did not enjoy war unless it was with monsters. He fought in this battle because it was his duty but he refused to kill humans because he killed monsters. She was a monster but with human form so the lines were blurred, there apparently was a grey area when it came to her.

The Joining started with the death of a thief. Lucia was not surprised that he did not survive. She had no love the thieves and had known several from Skyrim who had a Guild in Riften. They were slippery bastards that had no true goal other than to be rich, at least the Brotherhood had the grace to murder with a goal. But the more she thought about it, the Brotherhood had no real goal either. She shook her head, no she would not question now that she was out of there, she would not choose to think badly of her brothers and sisters. Never.

As the thief took one last shuttering breath and stilled Lucia smelled something other than death in the air, desperation. The knight was going to either bolt or try to fight away from this. He sword was naked in his hand as he backed away from Duncan who had not moved to defend himself. Lucia swore under her breath and knew the trap that she had been put in, Duncan wished for her to show herself. Great, just peachy, she was going to choke him in his sleep for this.

If she was going to be doing this than she was going to make it flashy. She dropped the shadows and with a swift jump she was airborne. Twisting in the air she let loos tow arrows and as they sank into flesh, her boots lightly sank into the ground. Her head was bowed and her bow was in her hand, empty. Alistair beside her gave a light breath and shuttered. She bent at the waist and swept one of her hands over her breast as she bowed to Duncan who nodded to her and moved away from the pinned knight to the warrior woman who was looking at Lucia with something akin to horror.

Lucia did not spare her a second glance but went to examine her handy work. Through the right eye and heart, perfect aim. She took both arrows in her hands and pulled them from the body allowing it to drop to the ground instead of being pinned to the stone. She used no magic with her shots for two reasons, Alistair would have freaked when covered in that much blood and because there were mage hunters in this camp that could sense when magic was used so carelessly. She had no wish to explain herself and it would displease her even more if Duncan were to speak for her.

As she did that Duncan had approached the final recruit and she gently took the cup from him. Lucia had no reason for why she did what she did next because as soon as that liquid touched the girl's lips Lucia blurred behind her to catch her as the poison did it's work.

As she gingerly held the shuttering girl she caught whiff of the goblet's contents. It was off from what she had been drinking in her tent but not by much. Her eyes flashed and she held the girl tightly as she had a silent conversation with Duncan. Darkspawn blood was within the goblet. She could feed upon them now, and it made her stronger, it had a greater effect than human blood, a while puddle not ten feet from her could overpower the odor that the spawn's blood, could not erase the pull that she felt toward the blood in that chalice.

Scratch strangling him, she was going to _cut_ him first.

The girl became limp in Lucia's arms and a horse wheeze came from her throat as two glossy blue eyes opened. Lucia set her down and offered her arm in order to help the girl up.

"How are you feeling?" Duncan asked turning his full attention to the girl who swayed when she stood up. She clutched her head and nodded before realizing that Duncan had not asked a "yes or no" question.

"It's over. I'm fine."

Duncan seemed to understand this, but Lucia didn't. Few words were spoken but after all of that the girl limped off and Duncan followed her leaving Alistair and Lucia to their devices.

"Come on, big boy, let's go and get some of that stress out of our bodies." She said and Alistair let out a shuttered breath before following her.

It ended up with her spinning her daggers and new toys around while Alistair leaned on a column near her as he spoke of all of his fears. She would be fairly serious with her answers and advice but she couldn't help but to slip a few jokes here and there to lighten up the dark mood he seemed to be in.

It only took them a few hours before retiring too their tent for some well earned rest. Only Lucia didn't sleep until the sun hit the hills and then she began to rest. She watched over Alistair as he slept and made sure that he was all right before she finally closed her eyes.

When she opened them the battle was about to start.


	9. The Battle and the Betrayer

Alistair was putting on his armor very quietly. His muscles were bunched making his tense face more apparent to Lucia as she smelled his slow boiling rage. What was he angry about this time? She questioned his mood as she slowly rose from the cot and stopped him while he was attempting to murder his strap for not buckling.

Taking it in her hand she threaded it and tightened. He shrugged off her hand and went for his sword and shield.

"What's wrong?" She asked him giving him a little space by going to put on her armor across the tent. He didn't answer but angrily strapped his sword to his back.

"Nothing. Just people who don't think I've grown up yet. I would introduce you but you already know them."

He said it with such bitterness it caused Lucia to flinch and feel a spike of guilt. It had been before she had gotten to know Alistair and had called him "child" and would still agree with some of that statement… she wondered what had happened to make him this angry.

"I have to go." He all but snarled and she gripped his arm before he could leave.

"Wait just a moment. You know that you can talk to me right?" She asked him.

His eyes were hard as they scanned her face and he angrily tugged his arm out of her grip, she allowed him to go with a worried expression.

"Duncan has your orders."

She watched him leave and sighed before grabbing her bow and pulling up her hood. She searched for Duncan and found him sighing and rubbing his forehead. She didn't know the extent of her anger before he was being crushed against a pillar with her barring her fangs beneath her mask at him.

"What. Did. You. Say. To. Alistair?"

Duncan was the only other person she knew here, besides Alistair, and she highly doubted Alistair would say something that would make himself angry. Duncan for his part almost had her fooled with his face, but his mood she could smell and he didn't smell confused.

"Before you lie to me, tell me why you would say something of this nature to him, you know that he will now work to prove himself and probably be reckless. What context did you decide to say something so stupid as to make him do that?"

"I would not allow him to participate in the battle."

It had the effect of dumping cold water on her skin. She released Duncan quickly as she shuttered and tried to get her anger under control, it would be that, Alistair would be pissed because he would not be allowed to participate in the fighting. She paced while Duncan collected himself from the ground and waved off a few other Wardens who had witnessed the attack.

Hissing through her teeth she glared at Duncan and resolved she would not kill him. Not yet. It would have to look like an accident and she would have to have time to draw it out. She didn't know why Duncan was treating Alistair like this but she would make sure he would pay for this, Alistair, for all he was worth was a child, but he knew how to fight in a battle. He knew how to carry himself when given orders, and she could easily keep an eye on him if things went south, but she couldn't watch him if he was across a battlefield.

"You… have my orders?"

I took every ounce of her self control and pride to make the words which tasted so vile on her tongue come out of her mouth. Duncan did not comment on her slowly wavering self-control and quickly took her by the arm, aside from the other Wardens.

"I do, but we must walk together, I have to meet the King and I do not have the time to walk you to your station and meet him without causing him delay."

Having little to no choice, she followed him.

"I need you to patrol around the battle and help where it is needed. I know your sight and aim is remarkable, too remarkable to be allowed to stay in one spot. You're also fast enough and strong enough to be patrolling the battlefield and helping where help is needed. I also need you to stay out of this fight, do not engage any enemies head on, and if we should fail, then I need you to promise me you'll save Alistair."

She wasn't a hot blooded warrior, she knew that she would not be able to last very long in a battle like this, even with all of her strength and stamina she would be useless on the front lines, not to say she shouldn't have been placed with other archers, but Duncan obviously had a plan.

"I will do as you say, but remember Duncan, I do not enjoy being used, I remove a finger for every time I feel I am being used, and when I run out I'll go for your toes, and if you continue to warrant mistrust then I remove another very important bit of your anatomy."

He nodded, missing the usual fear most individuals would have in their eyes when a person of her reputation or lack thereof would threaten them. Her eyes narrowed and glowed as her fangs thirsted for his blood, she didn't enjoy looking at the smug look on his face, she didn't like it at all. All too soon he turned from her and she took deep gulps of air to make sure she would be calm for the oncoming battle.

A hand close on her upper arm as she watched him turn his back on her, and before she could throw a dagger into his back he was gone from her sight.

"Good luck."

It was similar to having a bird fly near your face when you got too close to its nest full of precious eggs. Her eyes turned to the new annoyance as she grunted and shrugged off his hand. She did not know who he was, even in the armor of the Wardens she didn't know everyone, and she had no desire to return the foolish settlement. Who says that sort of statement if they are not preparing themselves for death?

Propelling herself into the air, she left him gaping at the spot she was in as her body latched onto a nearby tree. Looking at the battlefield she knew it was not high enough for her to be able to view the whole battle, not if she wanted to help and not have neighboring trees obscure her view.

Growling under her breath she searched for something that would serve her a better purpose and she found it just a small leap from her position. Making sure her quiver and bow were securely strapped to her body she took a deep breath and leaped to the stone tower.

It was far from a tower, only a tall stone structure that was all that remained of the tower crumbling around it. Her claws gripped the weaker stone as she latched onto the vertical structure and hoped she would not fall. It would be troublesome to have to heal right before battle.

Gritting her teeth she began to think to the side of her body where her magic was stored. Little magic was hers to command but being a vampire did have some useful benefits accompanying the perks of being an assassin, it required her to be creative and make up new spells which cost less mana and were almost untraceable to those who would seek to find her. Becoming invisible, draining life, and this little trick she had picked up from an Archmage.

Crouching to the stone she made sure her magic was working before slowly extending her legs so her body was standing up on the stone. She smiled and began to run up the tower when the top was reached she drained the magic and allowed her body to crouch on the top. The trick was useful when running up vertical surfaces which were impossible to climb, oh she had fun with this particular trick when she was asked to kill a child in Dragons Reach.

A rush of nostalgia hit her and it was quite unexpected. She did miss the old days, back when she was painfully naïve about most things concerning the Listener and most things concerning Astrid. Lucia wished nothing more than to go back and do events differently, fixing all mistakes, and mending all past relationships, but she could not, and with all the regret there were lessons to be made from making simple mistakes.

A brush of a stained tear from her cheek and bringing her bow from her shoulders she gripped it before putting an arrow into the string and resting both on her thigh. All she could do now was to wait, as fate would have it, she would not have to wait long.

The mist came before the first of the darkspawn even touched the battlefield with their tainted strides. It was the prologue before the creatures came from the trees. They came slowly, easing their tainted disfigured bodies, oozing with dead rot and roaring their crazed cries. It was an impressive display, Lucia had seen greater armies and lesser things commanding them, the prime example was standing on the front lines of the army she was apart of.

A blazing golden target for all to see stood the King, and Lucia felt rage at seeing he was the commander. Temptation burned hot in her chest and tasted sweet on her tongue, he was just at the right angle for her to put an arrow into his back, just enough to take him from the battle and teach the child a lesson. As badly as she wanted to do it, she knew Duncan would not approve, and like it or not he was almost her equal… almost.

The lesson she knew from her time as an assassin and third to the Listener was that sometimes you must take a step back and not interfere, allow mistakes to be made and leaders to gain experience from failures. It was her hope that this failure was not going to kill all those here, because it would be very bad indeed if she would have to save Alistair and his cute little Warden friend.

She saw them now, just at the end of a bridge not too far from her position, although they were looking onto the battlefield rather than looking up at the sky and temptation struck her again to shoot an arrow at him so he knew she was above him, but she stopped and lowered her bow when she though back to his behavior earlier in the tent. No, he did not need another reminder of his exclusion from the battle, he would need to have a calm and focused head for Duncan's plan to work. He did not need

To make matters worse, it began to rain. A slow drizzle turned into a downpour which would hit her sideways given that the wind was worse here than anywhere else. It turned her into a confident assassin to a wet kitten, at least the rain was colder now that the wind had taken care of making this battle one with poor visibility. Nothing her eyes couldn't cut through, but the other archers firing from the wall would find it a little harder to see their intended targets.

Almost as the thought came through her head a torrent of arrows were launched from the front lines as well as the wall and she held her breath as the lines of Darkspawn charged. She stood and made sure she was in stealth mode before preparing one of her arrows, putting a touch of magic into it before releasing and watching it do its intended job.

Five darkspawn exploded as her arrow ripped through their bodies, settling in the head of the sixth one and dropping him to the ground. Fully aware of her power she decided to downsize it in favor of using stealth and surviving the battle without revealing too many of her tricks. Should she wish to she could kill many of the spawn on the field with around fifty arrows and openings, but she did not wish to do it knowing she would be noticed for it.

Having already done something worthy of being noticed already, she had no wish to continue on the path of becoming a heroine of this battle tale. A snort came from her as she thought to the king, he would be a whiny child should she outscore him in this battle, but it would not be worth challenging a king and winning so she kept her magic to a minimum and tried to make sure her kills would not be noticed.

Keeping it on her mind she tracked Alistair while firing into areas in need of help. She would keep her promise to Duncan and do two impossible tasks at one time, should Alistair choose to join the battle after he was done with his minuscule task, she could not and would not stop him, and should they fail she would know where he would be and it would be too easy to slip behind him and knock him senseless while carrying him from the battle.

He disappeared into a stone tower and she set herself back to the task of making sure no one became too overwhelmed in battle. The air began to smell sweet and tempting as more of the spawn bled to death on the battlefield. It became harder and harder for her to concentrate and she constantly had to remind herself there would be time for feeding at a later date.

The task became impossible when a fireball launched itself to her position and she was forced to leap or face a fiery death. When her legs hit the ground they broke and she cried as she fell. With the battle going on she would receive no help with her injuries.

Almost helpless without vials of blood her call was answered as a stray darkspawn came to finish her off. As it came close she grabbed its skin and sank her teeth into its neck. It was a strange sensation, feeding from something which stank worse than rot but its blood smelled more potent than most pheromones and as she pushed its dead body off of her she hardly could tell the difference from herself and the monster laying dead at her feet.

Power coursed itself through her veins and she almost became lost in it before another emotion clouded the air. Looking to the sky she found the answer she was looking for when she had though of what Alistair's task had been before the battle had started. It almost made her smile. Of course there was more to the plan of attack than just attacking, they would set up a trap, and Alistair was the signal bearer. She could think of worse fates to have.

It took several long moments before she realized the intended recipients of the signal were not going to appear. They had quit the field, in other words, had placed a dagger into the fighters backs. They had the sense to incapacitate the victim but allow them to bleed the slow death upon a floor. Pathetic. The least they could have done was add poison to the blade to make a target feel before they died on the floor.

As she thought the thought three large spawn slithered into her vision and roared as they challenged her. Arrows dispatched them quick but the appearance of the spawn made her cold blood run colder. The battle had been lost, the line had broken, and already the spawn were spewing from every crevice they could find to attack those who were no present at the front lines.

_Alistair…_

Her mind drifts to him as she cuts down another spawn. She had been charged with making sure he survived the battle, even if it was lost. Her mind drifts to Duncan and if he knew this battle was a lost cause, she knew him well enough from his actions that he would prepare for all situations of this sort and make sure appropriate steps were taken.

Making her way to the tower she paused long enough to smile and smirk. He did not ask her to save the king, he asked her to save Alistair, he did not ask her to save his life, he asked her to save Alistair. Why was Alistair so important to him? Why did he matter more than the king of this land?

Not being able to piece together this puzzle was making her frustrated so for the moment she stored it back in the crevasses of her brain and tried to focus on the task she had been set, she would eventually have to deal with this puzzle but later when her task at hand did not require a clear head.

Getting to the base of the tower was not tiresome but she eyed the giant building with malice. She would have to get up the walls fast before the tower was too overrun for her to clear, even now it seemed to be very overrun. Only hoping Alistair knew of the invasion she planted her feet on the base of the building and began to run up its walls to reach the top.

It seemed as though she was not the only one trying to reach the top of the tower.

A shape was approaching the tower rapidly and it reached her destination before she did. Violently roaring and ripping stone apart like pieces of parchment it made short work of walls and when it had its intended prize it roared again and pushed off from the tower. She had to rush to the other side of the tower to avoid rocks blundering her body and after she cleared them she saw what was inside the beast's claws.

Alistair was there along with the female warrior from the Joining she had witnessed. She sighed wondering if he had a special skill which allowed him to be captured and taken from places he should stay put in. It took her a moment to notice something falling in the air, Alistair was injured, and this beast stank of magic. Either it was a slave for a mage or it was a mage itself, either way it was escaping with her objective.


End file.
